Fiscal reform meeting monitored by Legion

Ian de Planque, deputy director of The American Legion Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Division, recently attended a public meeting of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The commission, chaired by former U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson and former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles, is tasked with examining government spending and targeting areas of fiscal improvement to reduce mid-term deficit spending.

Presenting material was Dr. Paul Posner of George Mason University, as well as Pat Dalton and Janet St. Lawrence from the Government Accountability Office. The American Legion is closely tracking the activities of the commission to ensure that important veterans' benefits are not curtailed in the simple interest of short-term savings. National Commander Jimmie Foster recently stated in his testimony before Congress that the mission of the VA to care for the nation's veterans was the highest possible priority.

Posner specifically cited, as well, that VA's own internal practice within the Veterans' Health Administration of analyzing the data about health care to develop practices that reduced overall cardiac morbidity were a model of proper analysis techniques that can show how organizations within the government should be run.