Looking Out for Veterans

After Congressman Bob Filner read the Washington Post's series on the scandalous treatment of injured soldiers at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, he called Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and delivered a simple message: Their party had to fund the wounded warriors as well as the war--or instead of it. For years Filner, a liberal Democrat who represents the military stronghold of San Diego, had been warning that the country's military and veterans hospitals were strained to the breaking point. In the wake of Walter Reed, the public and the party were finally listening. House Democrats added $3.5 billion to an Iraq spending bill to treat brain injuries and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for returning soldiers and upgrade the country's 1,400 deteriorating veterans hospitals. As the new chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, Filner is now in a position to translate his advocacy into action. "This is a test for our party," Filner told me during an interview in his Washington office, which looks directly out on the Capitol dome. "Clearly, the Republicans failed. I hope we pass it."

Although he retains the look of a mild-mannered professor (he taught history at San Diego State for twenty-two years), Filner is passionate about his causes. As a student in 1961, he spent two months in a Mississippi jail for civil rights protesting with the Freedom Riders. When the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) lost a laptop containing confidential data on 26 million veterans, Filner interrupted a VA press conference by yelling at two VA officials, "You guys fucked it up!" He called on VA Secretary Jim Nicholson, a former head of the Republican National Committee who's been compared to ex-FEMA chief Michael "Brownie" Brown, to resign. Critics have said that Filner is too emotional. But Tim Walz, a freshman Democrat on Filner's committee who spent twenty-four years in the Minnesota National Guard, disagrees. "As a vet," Walz says, "I want a bulldog there that's fighting for us."

Dr. Bob, as he is known, took an unusual route to his chairmanship. He was in school during the Vietnam War, getting a PhD in the history of science. After teaching, he won a tough race for Congress in 1992 and has fought hard to keep his post, representing a district that's 55 percent Hispanic (a copy of Spanish for Dummies sits on his bookshelf). At the same time, San Diego is one of the largest military complexes in the world, and Filner's district abuts two bases. He joined the Veterans Affairs Committee on the advice of former California Senator Alan Cranston, who chaired that committee and whose close ties to veterans allowed him to be as progressive as he wanted on other issues. Filner is very much the same.

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