Nicholson to leave VA and Return to the Private Sector

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Jim Nicholson announced today he has tendered his resignation to President George W. Bush, effective no later than October 1, 2007.

Under Nicholson’s leadership, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) continued its evolution as a leader in health care innovations, medical research, education services, home loan and other benefits to veterans. He transformed the VA health care system to meet the unique medical requirements of the returning combatants from Iraq and Afghanistan .

In his letter of resignation, Nicholson praised and thanked the President for the honor of serving him and our Nation’s veterans in this key post at such a “critical time in our nation’s global war on terror.”

“The VA is a dynamic organization dedicated to serving our nation’s finest citizens – our veterans,” Nicholson said. “It has been an honor and privilege to lead the VA during this historic time for our men and women who have worn the uniform. We have accomplished so much and the VA is always striving to improve our services to veterans.”

Nicholson said he wants to return to the private sector. “This coming February, I turn 70 years old, and I feel it is time for me to get back into business, while I still can.” He said he has no definite plans at this time.

He also addressed an assembled group of Washington VA employees and those watching around the country on VA’s closed-circuit television. In his message to employees, Nicholson told them how privileged he felt to have worked with them in fulfilling our nation’s promises and obligations to its veterans.

“VA has come a long way in meeting the growing needs and expectations of our veterans and you deserve the credit,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson, a Vietnam Veteran, was sworn in as Secretary of Veterans Affairs on February 1, 2005.

· Directed each of our veterans of the global war on terror who come to the VA for any kind of care to be carefully screened for brain damage (TBI) and post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

· Hired 100 new Outreach Coordinators to provide services to returning OIF/OEF veterans. The new coordinators are located in Vet Centers throughout the country especially near our military processing stations.

· Created a new Advisory Committee on OIF/OEF Veterans and their families to advise him on ways to improve programs serving OIF/OEF veterans.

· Directed the Veterans Benefits Administration to give priority to Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom (OIF/OEF) veterans in its compensation and pension claim system.

· Launched a major information technology transformation in the VA with the way it uses and safeguards personal and health information of veterans.

· Created a new Office of Operations, Security, and Preparedness to deal with emergency planning and security.

· Initiated the overhaul of the VA’s vast contracting and acquisitions systems.

· Created a blue ribbon Genomic Research Advisory Committee to use the VA’s expansive medical data holdings to advance the science of predictive medicine.

· Launched a national effort in the Veterans Health Administration to eradicate staph infections in VA hospitals.

· Approved 82 new Community-Based Outpatient Clinics (CBOC) to bring VA top notch care closer to the veterans who have earned it.

· Created a new multi-campus Nursing Academy through partnership with the nursing schools throughout the country to help address a shortage of nurses within the VA and nationwide.

· Directed the hiring of suicide prevention counselors at each of VA’s 153 facilities to strengthen one of the nation’s largest mental health programs. He also established a 24-hour national suicide prevention hotline that will be operational by the end of July 2007.

· Hired 100 new Patient Care Advocates to help severely injured veterans and their families manage VA’s system for health care and financial benefits.

· Led the President’s recent Task Force on Returning Global War on Terror Heroes to improve the delivery of federal services and benefits to Global War on Terror service members and veterans.

“This is a very big Government agency that, among many other things, sees over 1 million patients a week in its health care system, and is doing a world class job,” Nicholson said. “The American people can feel proud about the way we are treating our veterans. The President and the Congress have been very supportive and for that I am grateful as well.”

Nicholson thanked the President, “he has given me terrific opportunities to serve my country and under his strong and supportive leadership, it has been a real privilege.”

Nicholson left the private business world over 10 years, where he ran a successful residential development and construction company. He was elected Chairman of the Republican National Committee in January 1997. Immediately prior to becoming Secretary, he served as the U.S. Ambassador to the Holy See.

Oh Calpernia, I've been hoping someone would post something about this...

Secretary Nicholson of the Department of Veterans Affairs Resigns.

Well, Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Nicholson has bailed out for the dreaded ‘Private Sector’. Did he jump, or was he pushed?

I’d like to believe that he was forced to resign by the groundswell of criticism and complaint by veteran service organizations and veterans themselves. Instead, I suspect that he is deserting a sinking ship due to his consistently inept decisions and policies. His performance as Secretary has been so egregiously flawed that ‘on his watch’ the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) has become an even ‘deadlier and more difficult adversary to the American Veteran than any they have ever faced on a battlefield’. (quote from vnvets.blogspot.com)

Who was Jim Nicholson, and how did he become Secretary of DVA?

According to his bio page at Whitehouse.gov, he graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point, and served eight years on active duty as a Ranger-qualified Paratrooper, and then 22 years in the Army Reserve. While serving in Vietnam, he earned a Bronze Star Medal, a Combat Infantryman Badge, the Meritorious Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Cross of Gallantry and two Air Medals(?). While in the Reserve he became a real estate lawyer, and then a land developer. In 1986, he was elected committeeman from Colorado to the Republican National Committee (RNC), in 1993 was elected vice-chairman, and Chairman in 1997 where he served through the 2000 elections. In 2001, he served as US Ambassador to the Holy See, and in 2005, he relieved Secretary Principi at the DVA.

In mitigation of his disastrous performance at the DVA, it is obvious from the above that while not completely incompetent—he did graduate from West Point—Secretary Nicholson simply did not have the executive talent or experience required by a multi-billion dollar department of the government. He was unprepared, inarticulate, and inept in the performance of his responsibilities. While I’m willing to concede his personal good-will, the of go-along-to-get-along political experience and skills he used previously were not those required to manage and control the empire-building Deputy- and Under-secretaries who really run the bureaucratic shark-tank the DVA has evolved into over the decades since WWII.

The Dog-Eat-Dog Culture of the Department of Veterans Affairs:

I should first point out that in my experience, the rank-and-file, public contact employees of the DVA have been without exception decent and honorable men and women. Whatever the constraints of the policies of the DVA, they truly feel a ‘duty to assist’ the veterans they are there to help.

From the beginning the VA, and later the DVA, has been a special case, differing from other governmental Departments. After WW-II, it was almost exclusively staffed by military veterans or patriotic citizens, whose only thought was to provide the wounded and disabled men and women who had served their country in war and peace the benefits they had earned from a grateful nation. Sadly, over the following decades, a certain, well, call it ‘pragmatism’ began to show up, particularly at the Ratings and Appeals Board level, and at the Deputy- or Under-Secretary, or General Council echelon of Veterans Affairs.

Granted, the DVA, and the Veterans Administration before it, did not become adversarial to veteran’s interests solely during Secretary Nicholson’s tenure. Because it is directly under the executive branch of government, the head of the DVA has always been what used to be referred to as a ‘patronage’ job. The position of Secretary is awarded by each succeeding presidential administration to someone who has made themselves especially useful or indebted to that political party or President. Thus, Secretaries are usually selected primarily to manage their departments quietly, and not make waves or embarrass the administration. (They are also expected to catch the flack when something goes wrong) Unfortunately, this administration or its staff have been notably ineffectual at this. (i.e., Ron Brown, etc., and now to include Jim Nicholson)

In the end, however, Secretaries of the various departments are always ‘temporary help’, there to serve until replaced by that or a succeeding administration. Consequently, the individuals who actually manage the Department are career bureaucrats, people who have worked their way up ‘through the ranks’ until they reach the Deputy- or Under-secretary level positions. Usually, these people are college graduates; or perhaps a double-dipping military type, (then almost invariably an officer) or perhaps a lateral transfer from the Department of Transportation, Justice, Education, or the Pentagon, who just happened to be qualified for an open position in Veterans Affairs. Either way, these individuals are careerists who tend spend years building coteries or fiefdoms within the Department, and they are in control of the day-to-day operations of some division. Their driving ambition is to get to the top and retire comfortably with a government pension, and they will do pretty much whatever it takes to accomplish this goal.

The unfortunate consequence of that goal is that, particularly since the end of the cold war and the fall of communism, the best way to get ahead is the ability to hatch various schemes designed to reduce the budget requirements of the DVA. Which, of course, makes the Secretary look good to the administration, and yields promotions or bonuses for the troops. This results in a constant flow of ill-advised efforts intended to either cut benefits, or reduce the number of persons who get them; and these people have generated a number of ingenious approaches to accomplish this.

One Case in Point of the Toxic-To-Veterans Culture in the DVA:

A perfect example of this process is the origin of the “Boots on the Ground” rule, which the DVA has used to eliminate an entire ‘class’ of Vietnam veterans access to benefits granted by the 1991 Agent Orange Act. (i.e., Blue Water Navy veterans)

The story goes that during the second Clinton administration in 1997, a lawyer named Mary Lou Keener, who at that time was General Council to the Department of Veterans Affairs, (GC-DVA) was married to the then Acting-Secretary of the DVA, Hershel Gober. In an effort to make her husband look good and possibly be appointed Secretary, the former Ms. Keener was looking around for ways of saving money in the DVA’s budget.

After a rather tortured reading of the Agent Orange Act of 1991, Ms. Keener came up with VAOPGCPREC 27-97, which had to do with the DVA being able to deny “Blue Sky” Air Force veterans Agent Orange service-connected benefits. (guys who flew over Vietnam without landing) Sadly, this didn’t work, and Mr. Gober had to withdraw his nomination for Secretary due to some unrelated shenanigans, and he remained a Deputy-Secretary.

Unfortunately, VAOPGCPREC 27-97 was not forgotten. In the first couple of years of the Bush administration, some bright light of the DVA under Secretary Principi fished it out and used it to come up with the infamous Manual 21-1. To quote the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) lawyers:

“In February, 2002, in a very irregular manner (that is, without public notice or regulatory comment or input), the VA changed its guidelines such that, in order for a Vietnam veteran to be presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange, that Navy, Coast Guard, or Marine veteran who served aboard ships must demonstrate that they actually set foot in Vietnam. This became known as the ‘boots on the ground’ requirement.”

Almost immediately Commander Jonathan Haas, USNR (retired) was denied immediate and automatic compensation under the rules of “presumption of exposure” to Agent Orange, due only to the fact the Cdr. Haas served in the “Blue Water” Navy. He fought the denial all the way to the DVA’s tame Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. To the DVA’s surprise, on Aug, 16, 2006, the Court (Judges Hagel, Moorman, and Lance) found in favor of Cdr. Haas and reversed the DVA’s 2002 ‘Boots on the Ground” regulation. The Haas Ruling ordered the DVA to process claims of “presumptive exposure” to Agent Orange not just for Cdr. Haas, but for all “Blue Water” Navy veterans. The Haas ruling supported the argument that, if one had been awarded the Vietnam Service Medal because of their presence within the designated “Combat Zone,” then they were “in” the Republic of Vietnam. This ruling instructed the VA to grant compensation to service members who served on ships in the waters offshore Vietnam.

In a clear example of questionable judgment, Secretary Nicholson compounded the original error in policy and elected to appeal that decision. Even worse, prior to their actually filing any appeal and contrary to legal action, the Secretary refused to comply with the Court Order to process ‘Blue Water’ Navy claims and circulated an internal memo, #02-06-24, instructing all claim adjudicators each Regional Office and the Board of Veterans Appeals to hold off (or ‘stay’) adjudication of any claims of this nature until the Secretary informed them to do otherwise.

The Secretary Nicholson’s directive was in flagrant violation of the Court-ordered reversal of the ‘Boot on the Ground’ policy, and such prejudicial treatment was to cease; because once Court-ordered, the DVA had no legal right to “stay” Blue Water Navy claims without obtaining the permission of the Court. Secretary Nicholson’s memo continued the denial of benefits to all Blue Water Navy veterans, even when there was documentation that the claimant had actually ‘set foot’ on the ground of Vietnam in addition to serving under a ‘Blue Water’ command. In fact, in many cases where the veteran actually (but temporarily) did work on the soil of Vietnam, their claims were simply added to the growing pile, because doing so was a more efficient method for adjudication officers to quickly table those type claims.

Shortly thereafter in another case, Ribaudo vs. Nicholson, practically the entire Court, (Chief Judge Green, with Judges Kasold, Hagel, Moorman, Lance, Davis, and Schoelen) granted Mr. Ribaudo’s petition for extraordinary relief in an opinion issued on January 9, 2007. Therein, the Court held:

· That Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) Chairman's Memorandum 01-06-24
is unlawful and is ordered rescinded.

· That “The Secretary will proceed to process the appeals that were stayed in accordance with that unlawful memorandum ‘in regular order according to [their] place on the docket’ and will apply this Court's decision in Haas vs. Nicholson.

One would think that after the disastrous results of the ‘Haas’ and ‘Ribaudo’ cases in their own Court, a graduate of West Point would be able to figure out he was in a untenable position and comply with the decisions of that Court. Somehow, Secretary Nicholson was persuaded to appeal ‘Haas’ to the Federal Circuit Court. Unfortunately, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims permitted the DVA to ‘stay’ Ribaudo, and later subsume the case into Haas for the appeal. The case is on the docket in the Circuit Court, and briefs are being filed by both sides.

One further note: Before his resignation, Secretary Nicholson sought to de-fund the ongoing Vietnam veterans Agent Orange studies by the Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine (IOM), probably in order to stop those pesky doctors from discovering even more dioxin associated diseases. He also is attempting to terminate funding for the maintenance and storage of the reports, specimens, and data produced by the IOM studies, and dispose of them. (Where I come from, we call this ‘destroying the evidence’)

So Who Should Replace Nicholson?

To conclude, we will probably never know whether Secretary Nicholson was incapable of controlling his subordinates in the DVA, or was being leaned-on by the White House; in either case he failed miserably in carrying out his responsibilities to this country’s wounded and disabled veterans. At this point the question is moot. Secretary Nicholson will be replaced.

Ultimately, the responsibility for the actions and decisions of the Department of Veterans Affairs falls to President Bush. In the last analysis, this President must not appoint just another crony, or political non-entity. This time, he has nothing to lose and everything to gain by appointing a hard-nosed, highly effective Secretary of the DVA.

Perhaps call out of retirement some Flag-rank hardass, along the lines of a Georgie Patton, or Ernie ‘Jesus’ King. Someone like Curt LeMay or Admiral Hyman Rickover, who would kill to spend the last days of his career cleaning house at the DVA, getting rid of the short-sighted, self-promoting, amoral culture there and transforming the Department direction, fulfilling its intended mission. Someone who will use his authority to do the right and honorable thing. Those people exist, I’ve met them. They truly work hard to help veterans obtain the benefits to which he or she is legitimately entitled.

The President must appoint someone like this, and then he must support that Secretary to the limits of his authority. He must use his position as President to speak out for, and fight for whatever budget is required to take care of those who fought for our country. If he does not, then we as citizen-veterans must hold his feet to the fire. Since they confirm the President’s choice, we must write Senate Veterans Affairs Committee if his candidate is not up to the job. In a time of war, we simply cannot afford another political flunky or venal yes-man in this position.

Not this time. Not again.

Department of Veterans Affairs announces new Secretary

VA Department of Veterans Affairs
Office of Public Affairs
Media Relations
Washington, DC 20420
(202) 273-6000
WWW.VA.GOV

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 28, 2007

Gordon H. Mansfield To Become Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs

WASHINGTON - - Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon H. Mansfield will become the Acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs following the resignation of Secretary Jim Nicholson. Secretary Nicholson tendered his resignation to President Bush on July 17, 2007, to be effective no later than October 1, 2007.

Mansfield assumes the role on October 1 under the terms of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act, where a Deputy Secretary begins to serve as the acting officer immediately and automatically upon the occurrence of the vacancy. Mansfield will serve as Acting Secretary until the next nominee of the President is confirmed by the United States Senate.

Appointed by President Bush in November 2003, Deputy Secretary Mansfield served as the chief operating officer for the federal governmentʼs second largest department, responsible for a nationwide system of health care services, benefits programs and national cemeteries for Americaʼs veterans and their dependents.

He previously served as VA Assistant Secretary for Congressional and Legislative Affairs since August 1, 2001, serving as the legislative advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs. He was responsible for VAʼs Congressional relations and representing VA programs, policies, investigations and legislative agenda to Congress.

Prior to joining VA, Mr. Mansfield served as executive director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) since April 1993. In that position, the highly decorated Vietnam veteran oversaw daily operation of PVA's national office in Washington, D.C. Mr. Mansfield held a number of positions at PVA from 1981 to 1989, and served as the organization's first associate executive director of Government Relations.

Mr. Mansfield served as Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity at the Department of Housing and Urban Development from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush's Administration. Prior to 1981, he practiced law in Ocala, Fla.

Mr. Mansfield received his undergraduate degree from Villanova University and law degree from the University of Miami.

Following his 1964 enlistment in the Army, Mr. Mansfield served two tours of duty in Vietnam. While serving as company commander with the 101st Airborne Division during his second tour, he was wounded during the Tet Offensive of 1968 sustaining a spinal cord injury. For his actions while his unit was under fire, he was decorated with the Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest personal decoration for valor in combat. He was medically retired by the U.S. Army at the grade of Captain. His other combat decorations include the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, the Combat Infantryman's Badge and the Presidential Unit Citation.

Mr. Mansfield is a recipient of the Presidential Distinguished Service Award and the Villanova University Alumni Human Relations Medal. He was inducted into the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame in 1997.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.