Bush appoints 2 to lead vets’ health care inquiry

updated 10:26 a.m. ET March 6, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush has enlisted former Sen. Bob Dole and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala to lead an investigation of problems at the nation’s military and veterans’ hospitals.

Bush was to announce his appointments Tuesday in a speech to the American Legion.

The president announced last Friday he had ordered a comprehensive review of conditions at the nation’s network of military and veteran hospitals, which has been overwhelmed by injured troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The review came in the wake of disclosures of shoddy outpatient health care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, one of the nation’s premier facilities for treating veterans wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Dole, as a young Army officer during World War II, was grievously wounded in action in the Italian Apennine Mountains. He spent years in treatment and underwent numerous surgeries. He went on to become Senate majority leader as a Republican lawmaker and later ran unsuccessfully for president.

Shalala was secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton. She is now president of the University of Miami.

MORE FROM MILITARY

Military Section Front

Going outside the military box in Afghan war Senate passes critical Pentagon budget bill Army general in Iraq issues pregnancy ban Top U.S. officer visits Afghan front lines Air Force Academy says religious climate improving Two-legged dog gives hope to disabled vets New VA patients younger, more often women Newsweek: A mother prepares for war  Military Section Front   Add Military headlines to your news reader: