Commission urges Bush, Congress to act within 2 months to fix health care for Iraq veterans

Leaders of a presidential commission on Thursday urged the White House and Congress to act in the next two months to expand mental health care and improve disability benefits for thousands of injured Iraq war veterans.

Former Sen. Bob Dole said he was optimistic that President Bush and congressional leaders would make good on their pledges to implement the commission's 35 proposals for broad changes to troop and veterans care.

Dole, a former Senate majority leader and 1996 GOP presidential nominee, also made clear that he and co-chair Donna Shalala, who was health and human services secretary in the Clinton administration, would not accept undue delay and expected some concrete action by late September.

"We're not going to criticize, but both Secretary Shalala and I are not shrinking violets," said Dole, estimating that about 3,000 to 4,000 seriously injured veterans would immediately benefit from changes.

"These are things that can be done quickly. We are not going to wait six months," said Dole, who was seriously wounded himself during World War II.

On Wednesday, the nine-member commission released its report urging changes that would boost benefits for family members caring for the wounded, establish an easy-to-use Web site for medical records and revamp the way disability pay is awarded.

The vast majority of its proposals _ 29 of the 35 _ require action by the White House, Pentagon or Department of Veterans Affairs. The rest ask Congress to make the necessary legal changes to boost some disability benefits and strengthen work-leave and insurance benefits for family members.

The White House initially cautioned that the commission should not expect changes anytime soon because the Pentagon and VA needed to review the proposals.

Bush later said he had ordered Defense Secretary Robert Gates and VA Secretary Jim Nicholson to "take them seriously, and to implement them." Bush did not set a timeline.

On Thursday, Dole and Shalala met with Senate leaders Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Both Reid and McConnell said they welcomed the findings and pledged to implement the key provisions.

"Our recommendations are doable," Shalala said.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a 2008 presidential hopeful, said the government faced "a very big task" in fixing the veterans care system and that it could not be ignored.

"The responsibility rests with those of us who should've known about this," said McCain, whose son, Jimmy, is deployed in Iraq. "I can't tell you how bureaucratically cumbersome and troublesome this process is."

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Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott contributed to this report from Derry, N.H.

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On the Net:

Copy of commission report: http://tinyurl.com/ypelgd