After press accounts described a multitude of disturbing concerns in the treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed – from unsanitary and decrepit living quarters, overwhelmed and unqualified personnel, to a bureaucratic maze of incompatible recordkeeping systems – Congressman Tierney immediately moved to hold his first hearing as Chairman of the National Security and Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the care and conditions at the facility to ensure prompt corrective action is taken.

After the first hearing, Congressman Tierney's Subcommittee and personal office set up hotlines and online web forms to solicit additional casework requests and learn about problems faced by other active duty soldiers. Chairman Tierney has since held two more hearings in an effort to maintain sustained oversight.

The Chairman and his staff continue to receive several periodic Member/staff briefings from the Army Surgeon General, head of Walter Reed, top Army officials, staff of the IRG and the Dole-Shalala Commissions. Furthermore, as a result of Chairman Tierney’s work on Walter Reed and soldier health, the full Oversight and Government Reform committee held a hearing on mental health issues facing returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan on May 24, 2007.

Congressman Tierney was also proud to support the Wounded Warrior Assistance Act (H.R. 1538), which which passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 426 to 0, and which was included as part of the Fiscal Year 2008 Defense Authorization Act Public Law #110 - 181). This bipartisan bill includes provisions to help: 1) improve the access to quality medical care for wounded service members who are outpatients at military health care facilities; 2) begin the process of restoring the integrity and efficiency of the disability evaluation system and taking other steps to cut bureaucratic red-tape; and 3) improve the transition of wounded service members from the Armed Forces to the VA system.