The Administration has formed two groups to review the problems affecting outpatients at the Walter Reed and Bethesda medical centers and the larger issue of the transition of wounded service members. The Pentagon’s Independent Review Group held its first meeting the day before Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced the resignation of Army Secretary Francis Harvey. The IRG’s nine members include former Clinton and Reagan Administration Army Secretaries Togo West and Jack Marsh. President Bush on Friday in a radio address, said he is forming a bipartisan Presidential Commission “to conduct a comprehensive review” from the battlefield through their return to civilian life. The IRG is to report its findings about outpatient care and administrative processes in the National Capital area within 45 days.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…