AP - VA Secretary Jim Nicholson abruptly resigned Tuesday after months of the Bush administration struggling to defend charges of shoddy treatment for veterans injured in the Iraq war.
Nicholson, a former Republican National Committee chairman and a Vietnam veteran, was picked by President Bush to head the Veterans Affairs Department in 2005. Planning to return to the private sector, he said his resignation is to take effect no later than Oct. 1.
Nicholson, 69, is the latest in a line of senior officials heading for the exits in the final 1 1/2 years of the Bush administration.
His resignation comes amid intense political and public scrutiny of the Pentagon and VA following reports of shoddy outpatient care of injured troops and veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center and elsewhere.
It also ends a beleaguered two-year tenure in which Nicholson repeatedly fought off calls for his resignation over the VA's unexpected $1.3 billion shortfall in 2005 that put health care at risk; last summer's theft of 26.5 million veterans' personal data in what was the government's largest security breach; and, more recently, the award of $3.8 million in bonuses to senior officials who were responsible for the agency's budget problems.
Walter Reed is a Pentagon-run facility. But charges of poor treatment relating to poor coordination quickly extended to the VA's vast network of 1,400 hospitals and clinics, which serve 5.8 million veterans. The VA also has a severe backlog of disability payments to injured veterans, with overwhelming delays of 177 days that Nicholson has called unacceptable.
"Secretary Nicholson's resignation should be welcome news for all veterans," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. "The VA under Secretary Nicholson has been woefully unprepared for the influx of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, consistently underestimating the number of new veterans who would seek care, and failing to spend the money Congress allotted to treat mental health issues."
His departure comes at a critical time. Nicholson most recently headed a presidential task force charged with making immediate improvements to health care in which he pledged to take "personal responsibility."
Democrats quickly called for a replacement who would vigorously look after veterans.
"The fact is, veterans have been right to be disappointed in Jim Nicholson's leadership at VA," said Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and a 2008 presidential candidate, citing in part backlogs of between 400,000 and 600,000 disability claims. "It is clear that Secretary Nicholson is leaving the VA worse off than he found it."
Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who chairs the House Veterans Affairs Committee, cautioned that Democratic lawmakers won't stand for it if Bush tried again to "appoint someone who's a good ol' boy."
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