Senate panel OKs Peake nomination to VA

Senate panel OKs Peake nomination to VA
Veterans Affairs Secretary nominee James Peake testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington in this Dec. 5, 2007 file photo. Peake says he wants to work quickly to improve mental health care for veterans such as by placing more staff at VA clinics to fight soldiers' resistance to getting treatment for depression. (AP Photos/Susan Walsh, File)WASHINGTON - James Peake's nomination as the next Veterans Affairs secretary was sent to the full Senate on Thursday, with confirmation all but assured for the former Army surgeon general who is pledging renewed efforts to fight soldiers' resistance to getting treatment for depression.
The unanimous vote by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee came after Peake offered fresh assurances that he would learn from past VA mistakes by placing more medical staff at VA clinics and planning better for the agency's budget needs. He also promised to find other ways to retain senior VA officials than awarding lucrative performance bonuses each year regardless of merit.
Peake was expected to win confirmation by the full Senate this month.
"I believe General Peake's heart is in the right place, but this job will take more than just promises," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of the Senate panel. "He needs to work everyday to overcome the bureaucratic ineptitude, backlog of claims, wait times, and other challenges that our veterans face every day."
In a new 22-page disclosure provided to the committee this week, the retired lieutenant general said he wants to plan better for veterans' health care during wartime and other national crises. Responding to a question from Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., Peake distanced himself from the VA's award of bonuses under former VA secretary Jim Nicholson.
The Associated Press earlier this year reported that Nicholson approved a generous package of more than $3.8 million in bonus payments in 2006, citing a need to retain longtime VA executives, despite their roles in crafting a flawed budget that fell $1 billion short and jeopardized health care.
"The bonus program is only one incentive and perhaps not the most important in attracting and retaining the best, brightest and hardest working for government service," Peake wrote. "If confirmed, I look forward to working ... to create a measurable, realistic and transparent bonus program for the VA executive leadership."
In hearings last week, Peake, a retired lieutenant general who has spent 40 years in military medicine, promised to be an independent advocate for veterans and get needed funding for their care.
Responding this week to follow-up questions by the panel, Peake said he will look immediately into the most serious charges leveled against the VA under Nicholson. They included a recent VA inspector general's report that found the agency repeatedly understated wait times for injured veterans seeking all types of medical care.
Peake said stigma that soldiers and veterans face in seeking care for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury was a major barrier. He promised to make that a top issue for the VA in the waning months of the Bush administration.
Only recently, the VA has taken steps to add mental health counselors and 24-hour suicide prevention services at all facilities, after high-profile incidents of veterans committing suicide. In the past, the VA had failed to use all the money for mental health that was allotted to it.
According to Army figures released Thursday by Murray's staff, 77 soldiers killed themselves from Jan. 1 through Nov. 27. Thirty-two other deaths are pending final determination as suicides.
Peake, 63, said he would use his experience as Army surgeon general from 2000-2004 as a guide, noting that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks he quickly moved to "proactively" address the mental health needs of Pentagon workers.
Assembling a team in a "crisis action mode," Peake said he dispatched workers to clinics, areas outside clinics and every office to spread the message that it was normal if workers were feeling emotionally affected by events and needed to talk.
"This was not done in response to someone acting 'crazy,' or having a traumatic response. Rather, it was done proactively," he said. "It worked! It is hard to prove the negative, but after a year, there were no suicides in that group of workers and there were a number of people who had, without fanfare, received longer-term treatment."
Other strategies could include better training of military leaders and family, putting more mental health providers in primary care settings and "imbedding" medical workers in military units, Peake said.
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On the Net:Department of Veterans Affairs: http://www.va.govSenate Veterans Affairs Committee: http://www.senate.gov/veterans/public/