[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 171 (Tuesday, December 11, 2001)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2253]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RETIREMENT OF JOSEPH THOMPSON

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JACK QUINN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 11, 2001

  Mr. QUINN. Mr. Speaker, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the 
Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) in particular, is losing a 
remarkable leader. Joseph Thompson, former Under Secretary for 
Benefits, is retiring after 26 years of service to veterans.
  I met Joe at the start of my tenure as chairman of the Subcommittee 
on Benefits of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. I had a lot of detail 
to learn about the VA's claims process, and Joe's knowledge of the VBA 
was vast. A Vietnam veteran, Joe began his career with VA as a claims 
examiner in 1975, and through the years he worked in the Education 
Service, VA's Regional Office and Insurance Center in Philadelphia as 
Assistant Director, and spent seven years as the Director of the 
Regional Office in New York. It was in this position that Joe 
reengineered the regional office's business processes and former Vice 
President Gore awarded the first ``Hammer Award'' for reinventing 
government to the New York Regional Office. Joe asked his coworkers 
personally to accept the award from the Vice President, which they did 
in Joe's presence. It was only natural that Joe Thompson would take the 
helm of the VBA. While managing almost 13,000 equally dedicated 
employees, Joe was responsible for administering the service-related 
disability compensation programs, needs-based pension programs, home 
loan guarantees, GI Bill education assistance, vocational 
rehabilitation and job placement services, and life insurance 
programs--and he rose to the task.
  Joe Thompson is indeed a visionary person. Under his direction, VBA 
developed the Roadmap to Excellence in an effort to improve service 
delivery, the Balanced Scorecard, which measured performance by each 
regional office, and established a system to improve the integrity of 
performance data in order to greatly reduce false or erroneous 
reporting of outcome measures. These were seen at the time by some as 
unorthodox ideas, but veterans and VA's stakeholders are better off 
today because Joe challenged the status quo. Joe laid the bench mark 
for future VBA employees, and he set the bar rather high, in my 
opinion. He is one of the most creative and innovative public servants 
I have known. And the well-spring of growth and change that Joe 
inspired is Joe's legacy to his fellow veterans.
  I have enjoyed a strong working relationship with Joe Thompson and 
consider him a friend. He is the epitome of the federal employee who 
reports to work each day because he wants to make a difference, 
especially for disabled veterans. And I can say without reservation 
that Joseph Thompson has met the challenge of leadership in public 
service. I wish Joe and his family all the best following retirement. I 
am sure Joe's family is proud of him; I know I am.