[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 26 (Tuesday, March 4, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H713]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  MAKE IT RIGHT WITH GULF WAR VETERANS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Ewing). Under the Speaker's announced 
policy of January 21, 1997 the gentleman from Washington [Mr. Metcalf] 
is recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. METCALF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to issue my personal plea for 
the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense to 
accept the fact that we have gulf war veterans and family members who 
are very sick and they need the best medical assistance available given 
without hesitation by these departments.
  While the issue is very serious, we can focus our concern later about 
who is responsible. Ignoring these sick and disabled veterans does 
nothing for them not their families. More seriously, this situation 
erodes public faith in our Government as a whole and these departments 
in particular.
  In the last few months, more and more information has come out about 
the possibility of exposure to chemical and biological weapons in the 
gulf region. Film footage of the destruction of vast weapons storage 
areas have been played on the screens of television all over America. 
The Department of Defense has now admitted to the potential for 
exposure of many thousands of service members in the gulf at that time.
  The depot at Kamishya, described to be the size of 25 B-25 hangers, 
was just one of what may prove to be many sites where exposure 
occurred. The bunkers were reportedly full of chemical and biological 
weapons. This information was reported to commanders in charge but 
orders were given nonetheless to destroy the site.
  Until recently, veterans have been told that gulf war illness was a 
mental condition, stress, or posttraumatic stress disorder. A veteran 
from Whatcom County in my district back home in Washington State has 
had a claim pending with the Veterans Administration for over 4 years, 
only to be told that they need more information to be able to rate him.
  Just last week he was finally given a rating of 60 percent for the 
gulf war illness portion of his claim, but he is one of the few that 
have met with much success for gulf war illness.
  If you speak to the Veterans Administration about that 95 percent 
denial rate for veterans claiming gulf war illness, the VA will respond 
that the 5 percent approval rate is really a great achievement. My 
constituent and many others like him are waiting for the system that we 
are responsible to oversee to finally look at the work of the reputable 
researchers who believe they have identified the cause and viable 
treatment for many of the afflicted.
  KREM television in Spokane, WA, has shown an excellent series of 
stories, produced and reported by Mr. Tom Grant. Mr. Grant conducted 
interviews with veterans and researchers from around the country that 
illustrate the severity of the problem and show promising results with 
the treatment of the drug Doxycycline. My office has a copy of this 
statement and would be happy to make it available to other Members.
  We owe it to our veterans not to bury our heads in the sand but to 
look at the sources of the problem and potential solutions that fall 
outside the comfort paradigm of the Department of Defense. If 
Doxycycline has helped some of our veterans, our Government physicians 
need to be free to dispense it to others.
  Finally, Mr. Speaker, our Government evidently has not yet learned 
from the post-Vietnam era of neglect and denial that we appear to be 
witnessing another Agent Orange like debacle, one of possibly much 
greater magnitude.
  Now, not tomorrow, is the time to make it right with our gulf war 
veterans, with their wives and their children.

                          ____________________