II 110th CONGRESS 1st Session S. RES. 332 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES September 26, 2007 Ms. Mikulski (for herself and Mr. Cardin) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services RESOLUTION Expressing the sense of the Senate that the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs should increase their investment in pain management research.

Whereas the characteristics of modern warfare, including the global war on terror, expose members of the uniformed services to many adverse and dangerous environment-related diseases and living conditions; Whereas today’s war zone conditions, including areas replete with noxious gases released from explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan, produce traumatic, life-altering battlefield injuries in degrees unheard of in previous wars including infections, instant crushing of skulls and other bones, loss of sight and limbs, dehydration, blood and other body infections, and, in some cases, severe impairment or total loss of mental and physical functions; Whereas military medical rapid response teams provide superb, state of the art, life-saving medical and psychological treatment and care at battlefield sites with an extraordinarily high success rate; Whereas military, Department of Veterans Affairs, and specialty civilian health care treatment facilities are overburdened with caring for the most serious and most painful battlefield casualties ever witnessed from war; and Whereas the Nation’s medical and mental health care professionals have not been provided with sufficient resources to adequately research, diagnose, treat, and manage acute and chronic pain associated with present day battlefield casualties: Now, therefore, be it

That it is the sense of the Senate that— (1)Federal funding for pain management research, treatment and therapies at the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs and at the National Institutes of Health should be significantly increased; (2)Congress and the administration should redouble their efforts to ensure that an effective pain management program is uniformly established and implemented for military and Department of Veterans Affairs treatment facilities; and (3)the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs should increase their investment in pain management clinical research by improving and accelerating clinical trials at military and Department of Veterans Affairs treatment facilities and affiliated university medical centers and research programs.