Veterans Affairs chief has served in many battlefields

It's only appropriate that Anthony J. Principi, President Bush's new head of the Veterans Affairs Department, is himself a veteran. The surprise is just how many relevant things he is a veteran of. He served in Vietnam, where he captained river patrol boats; on Capitol Hill, where he served on the staff of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee; in the first Bush Administration, where he was deputy secretary and later the acting Secretary of Veterans Affairs; on a respected commission on veterans' benefits, which he chaired; and in the private sector, where he headed QTC Medical Services, a VA contractor. Even among the experienced elder statesmen of George W. Bush's Cabinet, the 56-year-old Principi stands out for his resume's focus on one set of issues.

Yet despite his moving in a single circle all this time, Principi has managed to make few enemies. Activists and analysts for veterans issues, Democrats and Republicans, all have high praise for "Tony" (rarely "Anthony"). That's no mean achievement in such a contentious and emotional policy arena. After all, Principi became Veterans Secretary for the first time, in 1992, because his predecessor, Edward Derwinski, was ousted after antagonizing veterans groups. But even hard-to-please activists applaud Principi. "Tony is a pro," said Richard Fuller, the national legislative director of the Paralyzed Veterans of America. "He knows the people, and he knows the programs."

Principi will need all the good will he can get. Veterans have high expectations based on Bush's pro-veteran rhetoric, Principi's reputation, and the proposed benefits that the bipartisan commission, chaired by Principi, put forward in 1999.

That commission's most dramatic recommendation was to restore GI Bill education benefits for former soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines to a level not seen since the end of World War II: 100 percent of a veteran's tuition and fees at any college to which he or she gains admission. The commission even called for making the GI Bill transferable to troops' families, so that a career soldier could send his children to college on his benefit. For an all-volunteer military struggling to attract and keep qualified recruits, the Principi plan's impact on recruiting and retention would be immense.

So would its cost--by some estimates, more than $6 billion over 10 years. In the face of such fiscal realities, transferability fizzled in Congress in 1999. A bipartisan push in the House and Senate last year, however, did increase the GI Bill benefit from $552 a month to $650--a total still well under the $975 average monthly cost of attending even a public institution.

The commission's GI Bill proposals received little attention in Principi's confirmation hearing on Jan. 19. But Principi's very ascension to VA chief will stir up hopes.

"The stars are lining up," said Sen. Max Cleland, D-Ga., the leading advocate of transferable benefits and himself a former Secretary of the VA. Although Cleland himself doubts that a full-tuition GI Bill is achievable, most observers agree that a major increase in benefits may well happen. One model is to "benchmark" the GI Bill to the nationwide average cost of full tuition at a state university--which would still result in an 80 percent increase from today's level. That idea was recommended last year by veterans groups and the American Council on Education. Susan Robinson of the council said the best chance to pass a benefits increase is in the very beginning, "before the health issues claim [Principi's] attention."

It was those health issues that bogged down both Derwinski and, later, Dr. Kenneth Kizer, who was the VA undersecretary for health until 1999. Both men had forced efficiencies on the VA's sprawling hospital system, moves that weren't always popular with veterans. Some reform was and is essential: Although the veteran population is shrinking, it is also aging, and it is moving from the Northeast and Midwest to the West and South. This demographic shift has changed both what services are needed and where. But activists fear any dilution of the VA's mission to care for the special needs of veterans. For disabled vets, the "VA provides better care, more care, and better care more cost-effectively ... than anything the private sector has to offer," Fuller said. "If there are threats to that system, then we jump up."

The medical front may be all quiet, for a while. "One of the advantages that Mr. Principi will have is that now the results from the changes that we put in place are coming in," chuckled Kizer, who now heads a nonprofit group studying medical standards. That could give Principi time to tackle the benefits side of the VA, which handles the GI Bill as well as the 205-day backlog of unprocessed disability claims. The backlog got so bad that in 1999, the American Legion filed suit against the VA, and in 2000, Congress passed a law ordering the agency to help filing veterans make their case. Principi's confirmation hearing showed that Senators expect rapid action.

"What that institution needs is Mr. Principi," said Steve Kime, chairman of a VA advisory committee. Although the VA was made a Cabinet agency in 1989, it has "never had leadership that acted like it was Cabinet-level leadership. And Tony Principi can do that. He's Cabinet-level stuff."