After several months of internal turmoil and PR disasters, the Department of Veterans Affairs is looking to rebuild with a 90-day plan.
USA Today reports that former Procter and Gamble CEO and newly appointed Secretary of Veterans Affairs Bob McDonald plans to have his vision for the department in place by Veterans Day, November 11.
McDonald, who has been in office for about 60 days, has referred to his goals as a “90-day plan” that will turn the department around, “build a more robust system” and start helping veterans again.
“We need to rebuild trust with the veterans and the American public,” McDonald said in a press conference in Cincinnati.
According to USA Today, McDonald’s plan for rebuilding the Department of Veterans Affairs contains several facets, including hiring more than 28,000 new workers in the department. In particular, McDonald intends to focus on education, research and improved clinical and medical services.
“McDonald’s plan is a wonderful start. The VA needs more employees to process claims. But he needs to focus on hiring those employees to help with benefits claims. It takes years to get adjudicators up to speed to help on benefits claims and there are only going to be more and more claims as America winds down these wars,” says Matt Hill, Managing Shareholder at Hill and Ponton Law Firm.
Ultimately, McDonald told the public that he maintains his vision of a reverse business model, in which the nine million veterans in the United States are at the top of the pyramid, and he is at the bottom — not vice versa.