President Barack Obama’s Veterans Affairs chief will announce a new advisory committee Friday to recommend fixes to the beleaguered department as the two visit one of its most troubled hospitals in Phoenix, Az.
Secretary Bob McDonald will announce the creation of a new advisory committee of private sector, non-profit and government leaders the White House says will focus on improving the VA’s ability to meet the needs of veterans. The committee will advise the VA on additional ways it can work to improve customer service and veteran outcomes and “set the course for longer-term excellence and reform,” the White House said.
Members of the committee have experience in customer service, large-scale organizational change and advocacy for veterans and include business leaders, Veteran Service Organizations members, and health sciences and academic professionals, the White House said.
The announcement comes as Obama is to join McDonald and Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson for a roundtable discussion with veterans, VA employees, veterans organizations, members of Congress and other elected officials to hear what the White House says is progress that has been made to improve the VA’s ability to serve veterans, as well as areas where more progress is needed, and further steps that are planned.
Obama came under sharp criticism in January for not stopping at the hospital when he was in Phoenix on a three-day, three-state swing to highlight economic policies ahead of his annual State of the Union address.
Principal Deputy Press Secretary Eric Schultz called Friday’s visit “part of the president’s ongoing efforts to improve care for veterans. Improving timely access to care for our veterans is an issue that the administration has been working on diligently.
“Long after it fades from the headlines, this is something that a lot of people have been working on and that the president feels strongly about,” Schultz told reporters. “So even though it might not be generating front page news every day, this is something that the president has been focused on.”
The White House touted improvements at the Phoenix facility, saying that its beefed up staffing and completed more appointments.
The White House last June released its own scathing report on the department, calling for its health branch to be "restructured and reformed" and warning that a "corrosive culture" has led to problems of veterans obtaining timely health care.