FOR RELEASE: June 7, 2001

Democrats on Veterans’ Affairs Committee Urge Secretary to Fill Leadership Void at the Center For Women Veterans 

Washington, DC - Lane Evans (IL), the senior Democrat on the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, has written to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, Anthony Principi, urging him to hasten his search for a new director of the Department’s Center For Women Veterans.  Evans’ letter was co-signed by nine other VA committee members, Bob Filner (CA), Luis Gutierrez (IL), Corrine Brown (FL), Julia Carson (IN), Silvestre Reyes (TX), Ciro Rodriguez (TX), Ronnie Shows (MS), Shelley Berkley (NV), and Tom Udall (NM).   

The directorate has been vacant since the Secretary elected to transfer the former director to another job within VA.  Evans’ letter indicated urgency in announcing the new director.   

“Now is a pivotal juncture for the VA system’s treatment of women veterans.  As we are sure you understand, Mr. Secretary, women are a small, but growing minority within the population of veterans enrolled and using VA for health care…   The system must accommodate their needs if it is to remain viable in the future.” 

The letter praised the past performance of Joan Furey, the former director, and outlined the challenges awaiting the new director:  “[W]e are greatly concerned about the decrease in the number of clinics devoted to women veterans’ health care...  We believe the trend to “mainstream” women’s care into primary care clinics has resulted in even fewer women’s clinics now, but we have been unable to confirm this…  too few medical centers have assigned full-time women veterans’ coordinators to assure women’s awareness and access to medically necessary care and services.  These factors may be responsible for the marked disparities in women veterans’ use of health care services across the networks.”         

The Democrats urged the Secretary to advise them of his plans to identify a new Director.  Congress, just recently informed of the staff changes at the Center For Women Veterans, has not been apprised of the Administration’s plans to fill the vacancy.

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