Senate confirms McDonald as VA secretary

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-Excite

By MATTHEW DALY

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed former Procter & Gamble CEO Robert McDonald as the new Veterans Affairs secretary, with a mission to overhaul an agency beleaguered by long veterans' waits for health care and VA workers falsifying records to cover up delays.

McDonald, 61, of Cincinnati, will replace Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson, who took over in May after Eric Shinseki resigned.

McDonald has pledged to transform the VA and promised that "systematic failures" must be addressed. He said improving patient access to health care is a top priority, along with restoring transparency, accountability and integrity to the VA.

The 97-0 Senate vote to confirm McDonald comes as Congress appears poised to approve a $17 billion compromise bill to refurbish the VA and improve veterans' health care. The bill is intended help veterans avoid long waits for health care, hire more doctors and nurses to treat them, and make it easier to fire senior executives at the agency.

FULL story at link.



Senate Veterans{2019} Affairs Committee Chairman Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., right and House Veterans{2019} Affairs Committee Chairman Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., take the stairs to a news conference on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Monday, July 28, 2014, about a bipartisan deal to improve veterans' health care that would authorize at least $17 billion to fix the health program scandalized by long patient wait times and falsified records covering up delays. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140729/us-veterans-health-care-a1819cffd3.html

[L0oniX]

1. Another CEO in our government. Not sure that I like that.

[broadcaster75201]

2. This guy may be the best VA head ever. I know nothing about him. But ...

WTF is up with these CEOs in Gov't? They are NOT trained for these jobs. Gov't is NOT a for profit enterprise. They typically suck in these jobs.

Until we get away from the corporate infestation of our Government we are pretty much screwed. Indeed, it may be too late.