Free Republic

WASHINGTON - A California company headed by former Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi could get fees exceeding $1 billion from the Veterans Affairs, much of it on contracts approved and amended while he ran the agency, records show. Principi was president of the medical services company, QTC Management, before joining the Bush Cabinet in 2001. He ran the VA for four years, then returned to the company as chairman of the board.

In Cabinet news, John Snow agreed to continue serving as Secretary of the Treasury. Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi submitted his resignation to President Bush, who said, "As a valuable member of my Cabinet, Tony Principi has served as a tireless advocate for 25 million veterans." It's a short trip to Sanity Island today / tonight, as there aren't many photos.

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs has designed a new identity card for veterans that will safeguard confidential information. “The new identification card ensures veterans’ personal information is protected,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi, in a Thursday news release. The card, formally known as the Veterans Identity Card, will have the veteran’s photo on the front and identify him as enrollees in the VA’s health care system. Veterans should request the new card at their local medical center. Processing will take five to seven days once eligibility is verified. VA hopes to complete the conversion to...

...To find out why the VA is closing some hospitals, the Kerry campaign might put in a call to Bill Clinton. In the mid-1990s it became clear that the VA's model of large hospitals focusing on in-patient care was outmoded, wasteful and did not meet the needs of an increasingly dispersed veteran population. One estimate found that the VA was wasting $1 million a day keeping open psychiatric, tuberculosis and other empty wards. So like the rest of the health care community, the VA began offering more out-patient care by opening hundreds of clinics around the country. In 1996 the...

Stenholm sees hope for area VA hospital BY CORY CHANDLER AVALANCHE-JOURNAL U.S. Rep. Charlie Stenholm does not plan to attend to night's Lubbock town hall meeting hosted by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi, but the Abilene Democrat said Principi's visit could aid the plight of Big Spring's VA hospital, currently faced with the budgetary ax. "I welcome the secretary out here," Sten holm said. "I think he will get an earful from the veterans, and that's what he's here for." Stenholm had just gotten a helping of the same from area veterans. The current District 17 representative — who...

Summary   In the Feb. 15 Democratic debate, Kerry suggested that Bush was being unpatriotic: “He’s cut the VA (Veterans Administration) budget and not kept faith with veterans across this country. And one of the first definitions of patriotism is keeping faith with those who wore the uniform of our country.” It is true that Bush is not seeking as big an increase for next year as the Secretary of Veterans Affairs wanted. It is also true that the administration has tried to slow the growth of spending for veterans by not giving new benefits to some middle-income vets. Yet even so, funding...

MoveOn.org Spreads the Big Lie By Michael P. Tremoglie FrontPageMagazine.com | March 12, 2004 Hitler once said that if a lie were big enough it would be believed. Obviously the Kerry campaign and MoveOn.org, the anti-Bush group funded by billionaire George Soros, are apostles of this theory. MoveOn.org is broadcasting an advertisement that a new Department of Labor policy will eliminate overtime pay for 8 million workers. The Kerry campaign is broadcasting ads claiming Bush is decreasing veterans’ benefits, causing massive unemployment, and incurring deficits more than actually forecast. These lies are all careful political calculations designed to alienate Bush...

Clinton meets V.A.'s Principi (March 4, 2004) — Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., met Wednesday with Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi to discuss her concerns over V.A. hospitals in New York state, including one in Canandaigua. Clinton, in a news release, said that she was pleased with Principi’s commitment to consider her concerns about the transfer of psychiatric beds from the Canandaigua V.A. hospital. “With U.S. troops bravely serving in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, it sends exactly the wrong message to propose such drastic changes … without proper thought and deliberation,” Clinton said in the news release. An independent federal commission...

Eglin people deliver valentines to veterans FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. -- Volunteers from Eglin Air Force Base hand out valentines to veterans in a local assisted-living residence. Part of the "Valentines for Vets" program allows servicemembers today to honor those who served before them. (U.S. Air Force photo by Lois Walsh) Download HiRes by Lois WalshAir Armament Center Public Affairs 2/13/2004 - EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFPN) -- Valentine’s Day came early for more than 200 local veterans. The veterans were recipients of “Valentines for Vets,” thanks to a program that was initiated by former Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald...

Air Force salutes hospitalized veterans by Tech. Sgt. David A. JablonskiAir Force Print News2/6/2004 - WASHINGTON -- Airmen worldwide are visiting Veterans Affairs medical centers this month to deliver support and encouragement. They are joining celebrities, civic groups and community leaders during 2004 National Salute to Hospitalized Veterans week Feb. 8 to 14. The annual salute honors hospitalized veterans and aims to increase community awareness of VA’s role in providing medical care to the nation’s veterans, and to encourage Americans to visit hospitalized veterans and work as volunteers. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John P. Jumper encouraged Air Force participation in these...

VA Secretary Details Plans for Better Care, Service to Veterans By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USAAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Nov. 7, 2003 -- Secretary Anthony Principi made bold claims today on plans to transform the second largest federal department in the nation, promising veterans and America that the "Veterans Affairs will not be found wanting." Speaking before the National Press Club here, Principi said when President Bush named him to the helm of the VA three years ago, "He directed me to take whatever steps were necessary to improve VA's health care and our benefits- delivery systems."...

WASHINGTON - A sign of political trouble for the president surfaced at a breakfast meeting in July at an unlikely place: the Capitol Hill headquarters of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Present were groups representing the leading veterans organizations. Their members might be viewed as likely Bush backers in 2004, given that troops are under fire overseas and given the traditional loyalty former servicemen and servicewomen show the commander in chief. But angry over health care and other issues, the veterans told a White House official that it will take more than patriotic appeals to win the support of their...

....Strickland said Congress would need to approve increases in co-payments, but the VA could act on its own on re-enrollment fees. In 1996, Congress mandated that the VA adopt an enrollment system to manage health care for veterans. It gave the VA secretary the power to decide each year whether to continue to allow all veterans to enroll. What the VA came up with is an eight-tiered system that ranks veterans in terms of their medical needs. The "Priority 1" category includes veterans with service-related disabilities rated 50 percent or more disabling. At the bottom is the "Priority 8" category...