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Disabled American Veterans official David W. Gorman has written Defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urging him to relax restrictions that are preventing wounded service members from receiving information about their earned benefits and health care. "For more than six decades, the DAV has received access to military hospitals so that our professionally trained and fully accredited representatives could provide crucial information and counseling to service members to help smooth their transition from military to civilian life," stated Gorman. "The policies of the Department of Defense citing the Privacy Act and security are preventing our skilled representatives from carrying out our congressionally chartered mission." Gorman cited Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., for selecting patients who could be visited, requiring DAV to sequest permission to visit service members, and strictly limiting information about the patients.