Bush Accuses Government of Shortchanging Veterans

George W. Bush, in remarks keyed to the 56th anniversary of the D-day invasion, accused the federal government Tuesday of mishandling and unfairly denying benefits for veterans.

“Too often in Washington, those who served in the military are remembered only on Veterans Day,” the presumed Republican presidential nominee said, speaking in a park on the banks of the Savannah River dedicated to the nation’s war dead.

Bush spotlighted the Department of Veterans Affairs for specific criticism, saying its handling of health care for veterans “has become a complicated, bureaucratic process with long delays and unfair denials.”

He accused the department of failing to resolve a backlog of almost 500,000 cases involving benefit claims. “The whole process has been rife with errors and oversights and even missing records,” he said.

Bush promised to release later this week a set of proposals for “making government more responsive and accountable to the folks it serves.” He added: “And nowhere is that spirit more needed than in the Department of Veterans Affairs.”

In Washington, a spokesman for the Veterans Affairs Department responded to Bush’s comments with mock horror. “I’m stunned, absolutely stunned,” said John Hanson, the department’s assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs.

Hanson sought to turn the tables, saying the Clinton administration inherited problems from the Texas governor’s father, former President Bush. “Since we’ve taken over a fairly inefficient department from his dad, we’ve tried to revamp” its operations, Hanson said.

Bush, flanked by World War II veterans as he spoke Tuesday, paid tribute to the 6,600 Americans killed in the D-day assault on the French coast and to those who survived.

“Within one year of June 6, 1944, Europe and its concentration camps were liberated, and the world was saved from Nazi tyranny, and that’s why we’re here today,” he said.

Later, before leaving for a round of political meetings and a fund-raiser, Bush took questions from reporters.

He said he had no problem with the defense-related agreements President Clinton reached over the weekend in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. Under the pacts, Russia and the United States will reduce stockpiles of weapon-grade plutonium and establish an early warning center in Moscow to exchange information on the launching of ballistic missiles.

“I thought that was OK,” Bush said, adding that the agreements do not “necessarily tie a future president’s hands.”

He reiterated his belief in the need to press ahead with an extensive anti-missile system and predicted that Moscow would soften its opposition to such a defense.

“We’ve got to be able to have a missile-defense system that adequately addresses the new threats facing America” from “rogue” nations or terrorists, Bush said.

Although Al Gore, the expected Democratic presidential nominee, has attacked Bush’s push for the missile-defense system as potentially harmful to efforts to stem the arms race, the vice president seemed to give some ground on the issue Tuesday.

Gore said he might be willing to pull out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty if Russia doesn’t eventually agree to amendments that would allow a limited missile defense umbrella.

“I wouldn’t rule that out,” Gore said during an appearance on ABC-TV’s “Good Morning America.”

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Times staff writer Sam Fulwood III contributed to this story.