Democrats urge Bush to select VA secretary

Democrats urge Bush to select VA secretary
By Klaus Marre
October 29, 2007

Senate Democratic leaders Monday urged President Bush to pick a nominee to run the Department of Veterans Affairs, saying that the agency is without leadership “at a time when the agency needs strong, stable direction the most.”

“Much has been said over the last six years about honoring the service and the sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. But what matters to those who are fighting these wars is not the talk, but the actions we take,” said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and his leadership team in a letter to the White House.

“The lack of a qualified VA nominee more than three months after the resignation of the previous secretary signals to our troops fighting today, to the veterans of wars past, and to the entire nation that the Department of Veterans Affairs is not a priority for your administration,” the senators stated.

The White House recently criticized Democrats for not moving quickly enough on the nomination of Michael Mukasey to the post of attorney general, and Democrats are using the VA vacancy as a way to strike back.

They note that former VA Secretary Jim Nicholson announced his resignation in mid-July, earlier than did former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who resigned at the end of August.

Noting that Mukasey was nominated less than three weeks after Gonzales said that he would quit, the senators argue that “our veterans, and the men and women who work at the Department of Veterans Affairs, are equally deserving of stable, permanent leadership.”

The Democrats also point to the department’s recent troubles, arguing that the “VA system was stretched beyond capacity even before the current military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“It seems unconscionable that you would allow an agency that is so critical to the men and women who have put their lives on the line for this nation to go without a permanent leader,” the senators said.