WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2010
KLMNO
EZ SU THE FED PAGE
Agent Orange casesmay cost billionsmore
BY MIKE BAKER Because of a possible link to
Agent Orange, about 270,000 Vietnam War veterans — more than a quarter of the 1 million receiving disability checks — are being compensated for diabetes, accordingtoDepartmentofVeter- ansAffairs records. More Vietnamveterans are be-
ing compensated for diabetes than for any othermalady, includ- ingpost-traumaticstressdisorder, hearing loss or generalwounds. Tens of thousands of other
claims for common ailments of age—erectile dysfunction among them — are getting paid as well becauseofapossiblelink,director indirect, toAgentOrange. And taxpayers may soon be
responsibleforevenmore:VAsaid Monday that it will add heart dis- ease, Parkinson’s disease and cer- taintypes of leukemia to the list of conditions thatmight be connect- ed to Agent Orange. The agency estimates that the new rules, which will go into effect in two months unless Congress inter- venes, will cost $42 billion over the next 10 years. Former senator Alan Simpson
(R-Wyo.) said Tuesday that such a system seems contrary to efforts to control federal spending. “The irony [is] that the veterans who saved this country are now, in a way, not helping us to save the country in this fiscal mess,” said Simpson, an Army veteran who once led the Senate Veterans’ Af- fairs Committee. He is the co- chairman of President Obama’s deficit commission. Simpsondeclinedtosaywheth-
er the issuewould become part of hiswork on Obama’s panel exam- ining the nation’s debt.He looked toCongress tomake a change. Sen. Daniel K. Akaka (D-Ha-
waii), thecurrentVeterans’Affairs Committee chairman, said Tues- day thathewill address thebroad- er issue of “presumptive condi- tions” at a hearing previously set for Sept. 23.Thepanel will look to “see what changes Congress and VA may need to make to existing law and policy,” Akaka said in an e-mail. In a 2008 report, a group of
scientists said the decision to grant benefits to somany on such little evidencewas “extreme.” “There needs to be a discussion
about the costs, about how to avoid false positives while also trying to be sure the systembends over backwards to be fair to the veterans,” said Jonathan M. Samet, who led that study and nowserves asdirector of the Insti- tute for Global Health at the Uni- versity of SouthernCalifornia. VA uses a complex formula
when awarding benefits and does not track howmuch is spent for a specific ailment, but Associated Press calculations based on the records suggest that Vietnamvet- eranswithdiabetes shouldreceive at least $850 million each year. That does not include the hefty costs of retroactive payments or additional costs for health care. AgentOrangewas a dioxin-lad-
endefoliant thatwas sprayedover jungles to strip the Viet Cong of cover. American forces often got a soaking, too, and Agent Orange was later conclusively linked to several horrific health ailments, including cancers. So Congress and VA set up a system to auto- matically award benefits to veter- ans,whoneededonlytoprovethat they were in Vietnamat any time during a 13-year period and later got one of the illnesses connected toAgentOrange.
—Associated Press
BALTIMORE SUMMER ANTIQUES SHOW LECTURE SERIES THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2
3:00PM Grant Walker, The United States Naval Academy Museum Title: The U.S. Naval Academy Museum’s Collection of Antique Ship Models and Display Cases, c. 1650–1830
AL KAMEN In the Loop
Al Kamen is away.His column will return.
The Federal Worker
Ups and Downs of Best Places: The Federal Diary explores more of the findings in the “Best Places to Work” survey. B3. On Leadership: Experts from The Washington Post online feature discuss who matters most: senior managers or immediate supervisors. B3.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 4
1:00PM Robert Lloyd, Robert Lloyd, Inc. Title: It has Hallmarks, What is it? The Hallmarks of Great Britain and America
3:00PM Timothy Stevenson, Carlson & Stevenson Antiques and Art Title: One of The Three Graces: Schoolgirl Art and Watercolors of the 19th Century
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 3 1:00PM
Janet Drucker, Drucker Antiques Title: Dining in Style with Georg Jensen Silver
3:00PM Robert Mintz, The Walters Art Museum Title: Hunting for East Asian Treasures: Fine Art, Collectables and Exotica
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5 1:00PM
Jacqueline Smelkinson and Marcia Moylan, Moylan–Smelkinson/The Spare Room Title: Tea and Alchemy: A History of Porcelain from the Ceramic Wars to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
3:00PM John Forster, Barometer Fair Title: Barometers: How to Date and Value Your Antique Barometer
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Antiques go
Green buy
BY JERRYMARKON In the federal government,
there are inside people and out- side people, those who work in the bowels of the bureaucracy and others who seek out the media glare. Timothy P.Murphy is an inside
guy. The FBI’s new deputy director
speaks in the language of corpo- rate governance and tries to run the bureau like a business. He posts “strategy maps” on his wall. Asked if he wants to replace longtime FBI director Robert S. Mueller III when Mueller’s 10- year term expires in 2011,Murphy laughs. “I’m more of a behind-the-
scenes, fix-the-problems type of guy,’’ says Murphy, 48, who took over the FBI’s second-ranking job in July. “I’m humbled by the director asking me to do this job, but . . . inmy opinion, I’ma good number two.’’ Murphy is betterknownwithin
the close-knit world of FBI agents and former agents, where he is respected as a no-nonsense exec- utive who arises anywhere from 3:30 to 4 a.m. in his Fredericks- burg home, drives to FBI head- quarters in the District,worksout and arrives at his desk by 6 a.m. “He’s like a machine,’’ said
GrantAshley, a former FBI execu- tive assistant director. “He’s early, he’s energetic and he doesn’t slow down.He’s not rude or impatient, but he executes with ferocity and moves on.’’ Murphy, who runs the FBI’s
day-to-day operations withMuel- ler, takes over at a time of great challenges. He is overseeing the FBI’s continuing post-9/11 trans- formation into an intelligence agency that must anticipate ter- rorist attacks, while not neglect- ing traditional law enforcement. There is also concern about a
The ultimate insider, on top of the FBI
New deputy director shuns spotlight, but knows the bureau cold
A15
MELINA MARA/THE WASHINGTON POST FBI Director Robert S.Mueller III, right, is set to leave his post in 2011.He’s chosen an insider widely respected in the bureau as his deputy.
in four big-city offices — includ- ing a high-ranking post at the Washington Field Office — and helping to supervise the investi- gation of the Sept. 11, 2001, at- tacks and other prominent ter- rorism cases. Since arriving at FBI head-
U.S. GOVERNMENT
Timothy P.Murphy says he’s a “behind-the-scenes, fix-the- problems type of guy.”
recent spate of domestic terror- ism arrests. Murphy, who is married and
has two children, brings a some- what unusual background to the post. A former police officer at a tiny department in Michigan, he also worked as a traveling execu- tive for the Little Caesars pizza chain before becoming an FBI agent in 1988. But he checked every tradition- al box in hismetoric rise, working
quarters in 2002, where his nu- merous jobs included serving as Mueller’s special assistant, Mur- phy has become known for his crisp manner and relentless work ethic, along with what colleagues say is an occasionally wicked sense of humor. Each quality was evident dur-
ing a recent interview with Mur- phy at headquarters. The Michi- gan native had researched the background of the reporter — learned that he had attended the University of Michigan — and started the meeting by playing theMichigan fight song as a joke. Murphy, with his close-
cropped black hair and thin, slightly graying mustache, then discussed his vision for the FBI with military precision. “He’s Mr. Clean with a mus-
tache,’’ said Timothy Cox, a re- tired FBI agent who worked with Murphy a decade ago in the Tam-
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pa Field Office. “He literally was squeaky clean. He would come out, have one beer after work and then go home to his family.’’ Murphy’s tenure at headquar-
ters has not been without contro- versy. He was one of the key architects of an unpopular policy that required supervisors in field offices to move to other positions after seven years, drawing oppo- sition from the FBI Agents Asso- ciation. But the association’s president,
Konrad Motyka, said the dis- agreement was respectful. “He knows I’ve done things to oppose this, but he’s never held that against me,’’ Motyka said. “His demeanor is so earnest and pro- fessional. I think by and large, agents feel he is definitely one of them.’’ Floyd Clarke, a former deputy
director of the FBI, said Murphy has thrived working underMuel- ler,whoisknownto be a demand- ing boss. “Mueller is very high on him,’’ Clarke said. “I hate to use the word political, but Tim is political in that he doesn’t push the wrong buttons. He knows where he wants to go, and he gets there with a minimum of contro-
versy. That’s very rare.’’ Beyond preventing another
terrorist attack on U.S. soil,Mur- phy said his priorities include communicating better with FBI field offices and improving the agency’s “infrastructure,’’ includ- ing its chronically troubled com- puter system. “Some people say, ‘It’s just in-
frastructure — it doesn’t matter,’ but it has a huge impact,’’ he said. “It’s good to have someone in this position, in my opinion, who un- derstands that. Most of the time you just have a pure operations person in the deputy director job, but the world has changed, and the business climate has changed in how we run this organization.’’ Shawn Henry, assistant direc-
tor in charge of the FBI’s Wash- ington Field Office, said Murphy has the respect of the troops in an organization where many people “are just wound really tight.’’ “He’s disarming and approach-
able, but people shouldn’t take that for more than what it is,’’ Henry said. “He’s very direct and able to make decisions, and it’s not justMr. Nice Guy, it’sMr. Nice Guy and Let’s Get the Job Done.’’
markonj@washpost.com
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