[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 31 (Thursday, February 16, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E377-E378]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 LIFELONG INVOLVEMENT, DEVOTION, AND COMMITMENT DURING A DISTINGUISHED 
      CAREER HAVE RESULTED IN A MAJOR AWARD FOR DR. DONALD CUSTIS

                                 ______


                      HON. G.V. (SONNY) MONTGOMERY

                             of mississippi

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 16, 1995
  Mr. MONTGOMERY. Mr. Speaker, my good friend and former Chief Medical 
Director of the VA, Dr. Donald Custis, was recently honored by the 
American Medical Association. On February 7, 1995, Dr. Custis received 
the prestigious Nathan Davis Award at a gala AMA presentation dinner at 
the Mayflower Hotel, attended by a large number of family, friends, and 
colleagues.
  Although our work in the House prevented me from attending the dinner 
ceremony, I did have the great honor and pleasure to be one of those 
who recommended that Dr. Custis be considered for the award.
  There follows an articles that appeared in the February issue of PN/
Paraplegia News highlighting the distinguished career of this great 
American public servant:
              [From the PN/Paraplegia News, February 1995]

                        The Consummate Advocate

       The American Medical Association (AMA) has selected PVA 
     Senior Medical Advisor Donald L. Custis, M.D., as a 1994 
     recipient of its prestigious Nathan Davis Award. A former 
     surgeon general of the U.S. Navy and chief medical director 
     of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Dr. Custis joined 
     PVA as director of medical affairs in 1984. He served as 
     associate executive director of the Health Policy Department 
     and continues as a consultant on a wide variety of healthcare 
     issues. PVA Immediate Past President Richard Johnson 
     nominated Dr. Custis for the AMA award in August 1994.
       The Nathan Davis Award is given in the name of the founder 
     of the approximately 290,000-physician member organization. 
     It is presented each year to leaders in Congress and federal, 
     state and local governments for outstanding contributions 
     ``to promote the art and science of medicine and the 
     betterment of the public health.'' Dr. Custis received the 
     award in the category of ``Lifetime Service in Federal 
     Government Executive Branch Career Public Service.'' Senator 
     John Chaffee (R-R.I.), Congresswoman Nancy
      Johnson (R-Conn.), and Governor Michael O. Leavitt (R-Utah) 
     were selected in other categories.
       On February 7, members of PVA's Executive Committee and 
     invited guests from the U.S. House of Representatives, 
     Senate, and Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense 
     attended a gala AMA presentation dinner to honor Dr. Custis 
     and his family.
       The AMA award is one more achievement in Dr. Custis's 
     career, which has spanned 50 years and included numerous 
     honors and distinctions in federal medicine. Following the 
     outbreak of World War II in Europe, he registered early for 
     the draft and applied for a Naval Reserve commission while 
     attending Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago. 
     He completed his internship and residency in general surgery 
     at Presbyterian Hospital, Chicago, in 1944, entered active 
     duty, and served in the Pacific Theater of Operations for the 
     duration of the war, most notably on hospital ships during 
     the Okinawa campaign and the initial occupation of Japan.
       After a brief period of private practice following the war, 
     Dr. Custis reentered active duty to pursue a career as a Navy 
     surgeon and quickly rose in the ranks of executive medicine. 
     He was appointed executive officer at the Philadelphia Naval 
     Hospital (1967); commanding officer of the Naval Combat 
     Hospital, Danang, Vietnam (1969); commanding officer of 
     Bethesda Naval Hospital in 1970; and surgeon general of the 
     Navy (Navy medicine's top post) in 1973. He retired with the 
     rank of vice admiral in 1976.
       In 1976, Dr. Custis continued his commitment to federal 
     medicine by joining VA. He served as deputy assistant chief 
     medical director for academic affairs, deputy chief 
     [[Page E378]] medical director in 1978, and chief medical 
     director from 1980 to 1984. He assumed this latter position 
     at a crucial point in the VA healthcare system's history. 
     Cumulative shrinking budgets in the Carter and Reagan 
     administrations placed considerable strain on VA, the 
     nation's largest healthcare provider--a trend that continues 
     today.
       Still, Custis's goal was to streamline. He strove to find 
     ways to ``do more with less'' while gaining a reputation as a 
     real fighter for every dollar he could find in the budget 
     battles with Congress and the Office of Management and 
     Budget. His skill and tenacity as an advocate for the VA 
     health-care system--and the veterans it was designed to 
     serve--won lasting admiration from friend and potential foe 
     alike in the so-called ``iron triangle'' of veterans affairs: 
     the House and Senate Committees on Veterans Affairs, VA 
     itself, and the veterans' service organizations (VSOs). These 
     friendships last to this day.
       On August 19, 1994, in support of Dr. Custis's nomination 
     for the AMA award, Senator Jay Rockefeller (R-W.VA), then 
     chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs, wrote, 
     ``. . .I rely on Dr. Custis' advice and counsel on a regular 
     basis. . . . His insights and understanding about the Federal 
     Government's role in health care, especially as a provider of 
     care . . . have been invaluable to me. . . . He studies and 
     analyzes, writes and speaks, leads, persuades, cajoles, and 
     makes a difference on the role of the Federal Government in 
     health care. And through all of his work, he remains the 
     quintessential gentleman and professional.''
       Despite tight budgets, Dr. Custis drove VA--long centered 
     on the traditional bearing of providing services for World 
     War II and Korea War--veterans--to adapt itself to respond 
     more readily to the needs and expectations of the new 
     generation of service men and women from the Vietnam War. The 
     Readjustment Counseling Program for Vietnam Veterans (Vet 
     Center Program) was designed and implemented under his 
     tenure.
       In his farewell remarks to the VA Department of Medicine 
     and Surgery. Dr. Custis wrote about his fellow Vietnam 
     veterans: ``My memories are made of this. I'll remember 
     Vietnam. The brave men who fought and so often died there 
     remain indelible on my mind. Not that their sacrifice 
     exceeded those in previous conflicts, but because there was 
     so little unity of national purpose to sustain them. How sad. 
     It was the poignancy of that recall which brought me into VA 
     as I left the Navy. How crass and cruel the accusation that 
     we who care for him who has borne the battle, do so without 
     empathy!''
       Responding to the obvious needs of a rapidly aging veteran 
     population, Dr. Custis nurtured the beginnings of VA's well-
     suited foray into geriatric medicine; he instituted training 
     programs, research, education, and long-term-care services 
     that have made VA the leader in geriatric medicine in the 
     United States today. He strengthened the agency's long-
     standing role as the nation's largest partner in academic 
     medicine through its affiliations with 126 medical schools. 
     He expanded its award-winning research programs and saw the 
     department's duty as backup to Department of Defense medicine 
     in time of national emergency or crisis codified by Congress.
       Dr. Custis remains an active, consummate advocate for the 
     men and women who have served in defense of the United 
     States. On joining PVA's staff, he conceived, directed, and 
     implemented The Independent Budget Project, which publishes 
     yearly detailed analyses of VA budget trends and needs. He 
     forged the unprecedented coalition of VSOs (AMVETS, Disabled 
     American Veterans, Veterans of Foreign Wars, and PVA) to 
     draft ``The Independent Budget'' and disseminate the document 
     on Capitol Hill and to federal budget policymakers. The 
     report continues to be published each year and is widely 
     respected as a definitive statement of VA budget policy and 
     needs.
       In the early 1990's, Dr. Custis foresaw the battles that 
     would be waged over
      national reform. He judged that sweeping changes calling for 
     universal health-care, or even state reforms, could impose 
     a direct threat to the survival of the VA system unless 
     the department was allowed to compete and interact with 
     those new national forces of change. To prepare PVA and 
     the entire veterans' community for the storm that was 
     coming, Dr. Custis convened a blue-ribbon panel of 
     nationally recognized health-policy experts to review 
     various scenarios for national reform and identify the 
     appropriate VA response to those changes. Published in 
     1992, ``Strategy 2000: The VA Responsibility in Tomorrow's 
     National Health Care System'' was a ``first-of-its-kind'' 
     analysis showing that unless VA reformed itself in light 
     of national changes, the department could lose its 
     traditional reason for existence.
       ``Strategy 2000, Phase II: Meeting The Specialized Needs of 
     Americans Veterans,'' the sequel published in 1994, 
     challenged this same theory against the pending national 
     reforms under consideration by Congress. The document's 
     message, however, stated that with or without major 
     congressional reforms and because of rapidly changing 
     healthcare systems in the public and private sectors, VA 
     should move swiftly to streamline and improve its own 
     systems--or face the consequences. At risk were most VA 
     healthcare programs, especially specialized services such as 
     spinal-cord-injury medicine, advanced rehabilitation, 
     prosthetics, mental health, long-term-care, and others that 
     had been designed to meet the unique needs of the veteran 
     population.
       While veterans' needs may change along with VA's ability to 
     meet those requirements, Dr. Custis has remained an alert 
     watchman and a tenacious advocate. Writing of his commitment, 
     Representative G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery (D-Miss.), long-time 
     chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs and 
     currently ranking minority member of the committee, said, 
     ``Don Custis has dedicated his life to helping those who 
     served in our armed forces. His work as a physician in the 
     Navy and his involvement both as Surgeon General of the Navy 
     and Chief Medical Director (of VA) allowed him to be involved 
     in every major healthcare-policy decision in recent years.''
       Fortunately for PVA members (and all veterans) that 
     involvement, level of devotion, and commitment continues.
     

                          ____________________