[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 117 (Monday, September 8, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H6966]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     GULF WAR VETERANS DESERVE TO RECEIVE BENEFITS AND HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 21, 1997, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Stearns] is 
recognized during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. STEARNS. Mr. Speaker, there has been a lot in the newspapers 
recently about the gulf war syndrome, so I thought I would take a 
moment to comment on them.
  First of all, as chairman of the Veterans Subcommittee on Health, we 
are active in marking up pieces of legislation that affect this matter, 
but I wanted to point out this morning, Mr. Speaker, that I want to 
commend the Presidential advisory committee on gulf war veterans' 
illnesses for recommending to the administration that it create a 
permanent statutory program of benefits and health care for the 
thousands of veterans who have been plagued with a variety of 
unexplained symptoms.
  Coincidentally, the full Committee on Veterans' Affairs will be 
marking up legislation that my subcommittee earlier formulated that 
will require the VA to create a $5-million program, competitive grant 
program, under which up to 10 VA facilities would establish 
demonstration projects to test new approaches to treating Persian Gulf 
veterans which meets with their satisfaction.
  This proposed legislation will require the VA to utilize three 
approaches. These approaches could be used alone or in combination. The 
new approaches are: First, a specialized clinic which serves Persian 
Gulf veterans; second, multi-disciplinary treatment aimed at managing 
symptoms; and third, the use of case managers.
  I have a bill in Congress, H.R. 2206, which of course also reaffirms 
the VA's obligation to provide verbal counseling to Persian Gulf 
veterans with respect to the finding of its registry examinations.
  This legislation would also specify that these veterans are eligible 
for VA health care for any problem related to service in the Gulf, not 
just those problems that may be linked to exposure to toxic substances 
or environmental hazards.
  While I commend the advisory committee for its recommendations to 
establish a permanent program of benefits and health care, Mr. Speaker, 
I must also voice my strong objection to the fact that it stands by a 
previous presidential commission report issued in January that declared 
that it could not find a causal link between the frequently reported 
symptoms of fatigue, headaches, sore joints, and rashes, commonly 
referred to as the gulf war syndrome. Furthermore, the committee report 
stated that it believed that stress was ``likely to have been an 
important contributing factor.''
  Mr. Speaker, as my colleagues may recall, in the last Congress we 
enacted legislation to extend priority health care for veterans exposed 
to agent orange and those who served in the Persian Gulf war through 
December 31, 1998. My commitment then and now is to provide priority 
health care to those who served in the gulf war. It is a longstanding 
commitment, and not just by virtue of my new position as chairman of 
the Subcommittee on Health.
  With respect to what has been known as the gulf war syndrome, I took 
a deep interest in requesting that we agressively seek answers to the 
many unexplained illnesses experienced by gulf war veterans. One of the 
first casualties of this mysterious group of diseases was a constituent 
of mine, Michael Adcock of Ocala, FL, who died at the age of 22 after 
serving in Operation Desert Storm.
  After returning home from the gulf war, Michael suffered a number of 
symptoms which had befallen many other gulf war veterans, including 
persistent nausea, skin rashes, aching joints, hair loss, bleeding 
gums, blurred vision, and lack of energy, among others.
  Michael died in 1993, three years after coming home from the Desert 
Storm operation. We are still looking for answers to the causes of this 
mysterious syndrome which appears to be indigenous to those who served 
in the gulf war.
  I think we all know how terribly urgent it is that we continue with 
our research efforts until we find the answer to the cause of this 
syndrome that is so ubiquitous to those veterans.
  In light of the controversy surrounding unexplained illnesses Desert 
Storm veterans have and are experiencing, the VA, Department of 
Defense, NIH and the HHS have long been conducting extensive research 
into possible causes of the unexplained illnesses associated with this 
military campaign.
  Mr. Speaker, I am optimistic that through these efforts we might find 
the missing link that will explain this rash of perplexing illnesses 
which seem to be indigenous to those particular veterans. We all know 
how invaluable the research being conducted is and the need to find 
answers as to what is causing thousands of gulf war veterans to be 
plagued by a rash of unexplained symptoms.
  Mr. Speaker, I hope that the Department of Defense and the VA will 
continue to both aggressively treat symptoms associated with Desert 
Storm syndrome and investigate its causes or cause.

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