Congressman John Tierney will investigate the poor treatment of wounded soldiers during his first hearing as chairman of the National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee.
The Salem Democrat will convene the hearing Monday at Walter Reed Army Medical Center to address a "multitude of disturbing concerns" at the Washington, D.C., hospital that serves soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. Problems there run the "entire gamut of incompetence," Tierney said, "from unsanitary and decrepit living quarters, overwhelmed and unqualified personnel, to a bureaucratic maze of incompatible record-keeping systems."
"These people put their lives at risk for us, and we don't put them in the Taj Mahal, we put them in a dump," the congressman said. "It's ridiculous."
Recent articles in The Washington Post have exposed a variety of problems at Walter Reed, including outpatient living quarters that were dirty and infested with mice and cockroaches.
"You wouldn't want to live there, never mind having to rehabilitate (there) with a new limb," Tierney said yesterday, after a speaking engagement in Danvers.
The Democratic majority earned in the recent election helped elevate Tierney to his chairmanship, his first during his 10 years in the U.S. House of Representatives. His subcommittee is a branch of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, the main investigative body in the House.
His leadership post puts additional staff at Tierney's disposal, and it raises his profile in Washington and beyond.
"It's a major plus," said former Congressman Michael Harrington of Beverly.
Tierney has a significant role on a powerful committee that will provide oversight that has been lacking, Harrington said.
Harrington praised his former colleague and Tierney's superior, Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman of California, as a well-intentioned politician who is not just out to make headlines. Waxman is the only committee chairman in the House who can issue subpoenas, Harrington said.
Tierney informed Waxman on Monday that he was scheduling a hearing.
"Most disturbing to me is the seeming attitude of indifference toward these national heroes and their families by the command and administrators at Walter Reed," Tierney wrote in a letter to Waxman. "The health and safety of these approximately 700 soldiers should be the highest priority for the Department of Army, and I cannot think of a more important topic on which to hold the first National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing in the 110th Congress."
The hearing is at the hospital so lawmakers will be able to visit with wounded soldiers and examine the living conditions. The subcommittee will also hear from patients' family members.
"We want to identify exactly what the problem is and where it is and see whether or not this is systemic," Tierney said. "We want to see whether or not it's only at Walter Reed or whether it is at other Department of Defense properties."
Other investigations of Walter Reed have simultaneously commenced, including an internal one being done by the Army and one being conducted by an independent panel chosen by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. The facility is slated for closure in 2011, which Harrington said could have "subtly affected the thinking" about spending money to improve it.
Tierney promised his subcommittee's inquiry would lead to changes to ensure "the people that we ask to go into battle for us come back and get treated like they should."
"This will be the first hearing," Tierney said. "I suspect that there will be others."
