The Myopia of 'High Level Oversight Committees"
Report Says Fixes Slow To Come at Walter Reed
By Steve Vogel Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, September 27, 2007; A01
More than half a year after disclosures of systemic problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and other military hospitals, the Pentagon's promised fixes are threatened by staff shortages and uncertainty about how best to improve long-term care for wounded troops, according to a congressional report issued yesterday.
. . . Members of the House oversight subcommittee on national security laid the blame on the Defense Department, the Army and the Department of Veterans Affairs for what Rep. John F. Tierney (D-Mass.) termed an "utter lack of urgency."
. . . A slew of commissions and task forces have agreed that at the heart of the bureaucratic maze is a system in which the military services and the VA evaluate injured service members. The often-conflicting evaluations leave many recovering soldiers in limbo for months or even years.
. . . "We're seven months into this …