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Peake looks likely for VA confirmation

Retired Army Lt. Gen. James Peake pledged Wednesday to be an advocate for veterans and to be honest with Congress if he is confirmed as the new secretary of veterans affairs.

His comments during a Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing appeared to seal the deal on his nomination, with plans for a Senate vote before Congress adjourns for the holidays.

Democrats on the committee want a VA secretary who is willing to fight within the Bush administration for money and attention to take care of a growing list of problems. They wanted to know if Peake — a decorated Vietnam veteran who was an infantry officer before becoming a surgeon — is up to the job.

“I think I can be tough,” Peake said. “My job is go fight for veterans, and I will do that effectively and efficiently.”

Asked what he would do if the Bush administration tries to short-change veterans programs, Peake vowed to argue within the administration for more money and, if that failed, to be open and honest with Congress about funding gaps.

If confirmed — and that seems virtually assured unless his nomination is held up by something not directly related to his qualifications for the job — Peake would spend the final year of the Bush administration heading a department that faces major challenges, including a growing backlog of benefits claims, complaints of long delays getting medical appointments, and a new generation of combat veterans who have different needs and expectations.

Peake said he would try to make the VA’s benefits claims process easier to use.

“I look forward, if confirmed, to moving forward with making the system less complex, more understandable and better supported with the tools of information technology,” he said. “A veteran should not need a lawyer to figure out what benefit is due or to get that benefit.”

He also promised to be open-minded about some of the controversial issues facing the VA. He said he would be willing to look at the idea of paying for veterans’ medical care with mandatory federal funding, similar to the way Medicare is funded, as an alternative the current system of discretionary budgets that must be approved each year and can fluctuate with the political winds of the moment.

He also supports, in concept, legislation to dramatically increase GI Bill education benefits to cover more college expenses, saying the current system doesn’t seem as generous as benefits should be in wartime.

Sen. Daniel Akaka, the veterans’ committee chairman, said running the VA is never easy but “doing so in a time of war is dramatically more difficult.”

Akaka had a bleak assessment of the current situation with the VA benefits system. “It is “no exaggeration to say that VA’s … compensation system is broken,” he said.

The committee’s ranking Republican member, Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, said Peake seems like the perfect choice because of his background as a West Point graduate who served as an infantry officer in Vietnam, was twice wounded, used the GI Bill to attend medical school and went on to serve a full career in the Army, retiring as a three-star general.

“I don’t think you could have better prepared for this job if you had planned it,” Burr said.