Veterans Affairs
Last week, my colleague Lex Alexander wrote about an ongoing issue with the VA:
Winston-Salem's Department of Veterans Affairs regional office is among at least 41 VA offices nationwide that improperly placed papers in bins to be shredded, records show.The papers pertained primarily to veterans' applications for benefits, according to VA records obtained by the News & Record through the service organization Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States.
The papers were described in an Oct. 23 VA conference call as "critical," meaning the documents were necessary for veterans' claims to be properly adjudicated. Improper adjudication could keep veterans or their survivors from getting money to which they are entitled.
Mentioned here, because President-elect Barack Obama will formally announce his new Veteran's Affairs nominee today:
President-elect Barack Obama today will introduce retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as his nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, bringing to his Cabinet a career military officer best known for running afoul of the Bush administration by questioning the Pentagon's Iraq war strategy.Shinseki, a four-star general and 38-year veteran who retired shortly after the fall of Baghdad in 2003, will appear with Obama in Chicago at a news conference today commemorating the 67th anniversary of the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbor. Obama said Shinseki agreed to join the incoming administration because "both he and I share a reverence for those who serve."
As ranking Republican on the Committee on Veteran Affairs, NC Sen. Richard Burr will have some say relative to the confirmation of that appointment.
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