[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 113 (Tuesday, September 1, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9730-S9731]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           GULF WAR ILLNESSES

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, Senator Specter announced earlier today the 
release of a voluminous and comprehensive report of the Committee on 
Veterans' Affairs special investigation unit on Gulf War illnesses. I 
commend the Senator from Pennsylvania and the other Members of the 
Committee, including my colleague from West Virginia, Senator 
Rockefeller, on this report, which was over a year in the making. In 
great detail, this report and its appendices provide the justification 
for legislation that Senator Specter, Senator Rockefeller, and I 
introduced on July 28, S. 2358, the Gulf War Veterans Act of 1998.
  The history of this sorry saga of war, illness, and bureaucratic 
bungling it details has not improved with time. Indeed, age has turned 
this victory wine into sour vinegar, not a vintage to be savored. Since 
the signing of the cease fire in Iraq in 1991, soldiers have been 
complaining of symptoms that have been poorly dealt with by the 
Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. As the 
years have passed, we have learned that these soldiers, sailors, and 
airmen had to operate in a toxic atmospheric cocktail of environmental 
and battlefield hazards, topped off with a chaser of vaccines and pills 
that may have interacted poorly with all the other hazardous exposures. 
We have learned that our equipment to detect and protect our troops may 
not be good enough, and that their training and doctrine is inadequate. 
We have even learned of the role that the U.S. played in arming Iraq 
with chemical and biological warfare technology and materials. Finally, 
DOD and the VA record keeping was poor, the databases inadequately 
designed and incompatible, so that the ability to identify battlefield 
exposures--when known--is not available to the VA when requested by a 
sick soldier. We won the war, but the price paid by these soldiers has 
been unacceptably high, perhaps needlessly high. And DOD and the VA 
have done little to correct the problems. The official motto seems to 
be ``That which does not kill us, we ignore--unless forced to address 
it.''
  Like other Members, I have tried to correct these matters as they 
have come to light. I successfully offered an amendment to ensure DOD 
and the Intelligence Community consultation when pathogens useful to a 
biological warfare program are approved for export, so that we have a 
better opportunity to track countries that have the capability, if not 
the intent, to produce biological warfare agents. I obtained funding 
for the first peer-reviewed scientific studies of the possible health 
effects of exposure to low levels of chemical warfare agents. An 
amendment I authored that was adopted by the Senate but rejected in 
conference would have provided military health care to the children of 
Gulf War veterans born with birth defects that might be linked to their 
parent's wartime exposures.
  This year, I offered amendments to the Department of Defense 
authorization bill to improve the oversight and approval process for 
granting waivers to use investigational drugs without informed consent 
of the troops, and to require a review of chemical warfare defense 
doctrine to address exposure to low levels of chemical warfare agents. 
This last effort is based on a soon-to-be released General Accounting 
Organization (GAO) study that I requested last year in conjunction with 
Senator Levin and Senator Glenn. I am sorry to say that, despite DOD's 
1996 show of concern over possible chemical exposures at Khamisiyah 
[Kam-ih-see-yah] and other Iraqi sites that may have resulted in the 
exposure of U.S. personnel to varying levels of chemical warfare 
agents, little has been done to address the lack of training that 
should better enable our troops to recognize and take effective action 
to protect themselves from these potential health threats. We have also 
requested GAO to look into the adequacy of U.S. detection and 
protection equipment and efforts to address hazardous, but not lethal, 
levels of chemical and biological warfare agents. This study will be 
completed next year.
  While I hope that my efforts and the efforts of other Members and 
Committees can push DOD and the VA into facing the serious new health 
consequences of war on the modern battlefield, even these cannot 
adequately substitute for an epiphany in those departments that will 
result in a sincere and thorough examination of this issue, and in 
proactive and coordinated steps to correct the deficiencies outlined in 
this comprehensive report.
  There is no smoking gun in this report, no explosive new evidence 
that says ``whodunit'' and why. But like previous reports by Congress, 
the GAO, and the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses, 
this report confirms that our veterans were exposed to a poison 
cocktail of hazardous materials, that many are now ill, and that the 
bureaucratic response has been slow and stumbling. It is likely that 
there will never be a clear and final answer for our sick soldiers and 
their families as to exactly what ails them. But this report does offer 
many corrective recommendations aimed at preventing the veterans of the 
next war from having to go through the years of frustration and outrage 
that the sick veterans of the Persian Gulf War have endured. It also 
offers a solid foundation to move forward and address the legitimate 
health concerns of Persian Gulf veterans that are contained in S. 2358, 
the Persian Gulf Veterans Act of 1998. Gulf War veterans in West 
Virginia and across the country are getting sick as a result of their 
participation in the Gulf War, which may have exposed them to a variety 
of hazardous materials and chemicals while serving their country. But 
instead of receiving medical care, these veterans are given 
bureaucratic excuses. It is time to end

[[Page S9731]]

the litany of excuses and to give our veterans the health care they 
deserve. I again thank my friend from Pennsylvania, Mr. Specter, for 
his efforts, and the efforts and my colleague from West Virginia, Mr. 
Rockefeller. I congratulate and thank the committee for its efforts. I 
look forward to the successful passage of S. 2358.
  Mr. President, I thank my friend, Mr. Specter, for his courtesy in 
allowing me to proceed at this point. I now yield the floor.
  Mr. SPECTER addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sessions). The Senator from Pennsylvania.

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