[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 120 (Thursday, September 11, 1997)]
[House]
[Page H7202]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN SUPPORT OF THE WIDENING INVESTIGATION OF PERSIAN GULF WAR ILLNESSES

  (Mr. SANDERS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, 6 years after the Persian Gulf war, 70,000 
veterans of that war, including hundreds in my State of Vermont, 
continue to suffer. Six years after the Persian Gulf war, the 
Department of Defense and the Veterans' Administration acknowledge that 
they do not know the cause of that illness and have not developed an 
effective treatment protocol. Six years after that war, the General 
Accounting Office and the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War 
Illness have discussed at length the ineptitude of the DOD and the VA 
in addressing that issue.
  Mr. Chairman, I am delighted that within the Labor-HHS bill there is 
now an appropriation of $7 million over a 5-year period to go to an 
outside agency, the National Institute of Environmental Health 
Sciences, so that they can begin to study the cause of the chemical 
impact on gulf war illness and hopefully develop a treatment.
  It is about time we went outside of the DOD and the VA. It is a major 
step forward, and I thank the chairman of that committee for his effort 
in this direction.

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