WASHINGTON, March 7 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Wednesday asked President Bush to ensure the Walter Reed hospital probe is non-partisan.
In a letter sent to the president, the lawmakers called on Bush to make sure the newly announced commission charged with investigating deficiencies at the veterans' facility includes veterans and families with a firsthand understanding of the problems.
They also asked Bush to work with Congress in choosing the commission's members and determining its responsibilities to ensure it "attains the greatest strength and highest credibility."
"You have taken a good first step by naming two distinguished Americans with valuable experience to co-chair this commission," Reid and Pelosi said in the letter, referring to former Republican Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, a Democrat. "We believe more needs to be done to provide our troops and the American people confidence in the commission's work."
In building the commission, Bush should include both service members returning from Iraq or Afghanistan and their family members "with a firsthand understanding of the flawed system" and should also include members of both political parties, they said.
