<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><BillSummaries>
<item congress="117" measure-type="s" measure-number="1039" measure-id="id117s1039" originChamber="SENATE" orig-publish-date="2021-03-25" update-date="2021-06-28">
<title>A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to improve compensation for disabilities occurring in Persian Gulf War veterans, and for other purposes.</title>
<summary summary-id="id117s1039v00" currentChamber="SENATE" update-date="2021-06-28">
<action-date>2021-03-25</action-date>
<action-desc>Introduced in Senate</action-desc>
<summary-text><![CDATA[<p>This bill addresses disability compensation and care issues for Persian Gulf War veterans.</p> <p>First, the bill expands eligibility for disability compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to Persian Gulf War veterans who have a qualifying chronic disability that became manifest to any degree at any time.</p> <p>Next, the VA must develop a Disability Benefits Questionnaire to be used by health care personnel to identify Gulf War illness if a Persian Gulf veteran presents with any one symptom associated with such illness.</p> <p>The bill also expands who qualifies as a Persian Gulf veteran by including those who served in Afghanistan, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, or Jordan during the Persian Gulf War. Under current law, <em>Persian Gulf veteran</em> refers only to individuals who served on active duty during the Persian Gulf War in particular areas of the Arabian Peninsula.</p> <p>Finally, the VA must ensure its health care personnel are appropriately trained to provide care to Persian Gulf veterans.</p>]]></summary-text>
</summary>
</item>
<dublinCore xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<dc:format>text/xml</dc:format>
<dc:language>EN</dc:language>
<dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
<dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
<dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
</dublinCore>
</BillSummaries>
