Vice President Dick Cheney told more than 1,200 veterans at the Omni Shoreham Hotel Monday that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will correct the problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and investigate U.S. military and Veterans Administration hospitals with similar problems.

“There will be no excuses, only action, and the federal bureaucracy will not slow us down,” Cheney said. “We’re going to fix the problems at Walter Reed, period. From the time they leave the battlefield to their return to civilian life, they deserve the very best medical care that our government can possibly provide.”

Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., told leaders of the American Legion Monday, that problems and poor service at Walter Reed represented “significant and systematic problems” in America’s veterans hospitals, requiring quick U.S. government intervention.

“This is our test as a nation, this is our test as a Congress, this is the test of the executive branch,” he said to a packed room of leaders of the American Legion meeting in Washington.

This story continues below
Advertisement

War veterans such as South Carolina native Judy Scott who live hundreds or thousands of miles away said they did not realize the magnitude of the problem before arriving. A VFW Certified National Recruiter and Persian Gulf War veteran, Scott admitted knowing little of the conditions.

The government and organizations like the American Legion work to improve processing time at VA facilities and to ensure that facilities can heal both physical and mental wounds, Filner said.

Filner has pushed for an additional $5 billion for veterans programs to be added to President Bush’s 2007 wartime supplemental funding bill, of which $3 billion would go toward studying post-traumatic stress disorder and an additional $1 billion toward studying brain trauma incurred by U.S. soldiers in combat.