[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 18]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




           PROTECTING THE HEALTH OF OUR TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to recognize our 
Nation's heroic men and women who are serving our country, our 
citizens, in the war on terrorism.
  Following the unspeakable acts of terror on September 11 of last 
year, the President admonished our Nation to prepare for a long 
struggle, a military and moral struggle, against terrorism. On Monday, 
I witnessed the departure of 25 young men and women reservists of the 
388th U.S. Army Reserve unit in my hometown of Hays, Kansas. I watched 
the sacrifices of these families, of the young children who grabbed 
their dad's and mom's legs and the tears that are shed for moms and 
dads and friends and family and neighbors. These loved ones of our 
community have answered the call to duty, and America's war on 
terrorism has come home.
  As we now look at the deployment of thousands of United States 
military forces in combat and in Afghanistan and elsewhere, we should 
remember and learn from those who have served us in the past. We have 
to do the right thing by these soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines, 
with proper preparation and readiness before they are deployed. I want 
to try to assure our families, those in Kansas and elsewhere, that we 
are doing the right thing to ensure the safe return and a healthy life 
for our servicemen and women.
  Tomorrow morning, the Committee on Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on 
Health will conduct a hearing to examine preventive procedures in place 
to protect health care of servicemen and women who have been deployed 
to Afghanistan. As chairman of this subcommittee, I will ask whether or 
not the lessons we learned and should have learned from our troop 
deployments in the Persian Gulf War have been integrated into current 
deployment procedures of the Departments of Defense and Veterans' 
Affairs.
  Has sufficient priority been given to matters of health protection, 
prevention and monitoring of our troops?
  Are our troops in Afghanistan deployed with the proper equipment, 
protective clothing, detection equipment, gas masks to fight a war in 
which chemical and biological weapons might be used?
  Are our troops prepared to detect reliably the presence of chemical 
and biological weapons?
  Are our troops trained to conduct effective military operations in an 
environment where chemicals or biological weapons may be used?
  We will review and hear testimony from the current Department of VA 
and Defense, and we will hear how we have benefited from the knowledge 
and gained information from past mistakes.

                              {time}  1430

  The hearing will ask current and former officials of DOD and VA to 
review the roles they played in the Gulf War and how policy was 
formulated to deal with the known risks, as well as to discuss some of 
the problems later uncovered that were not anticipated in the immediacy 
of the deployment itself. We will be privileged to have two former 
United States Senators who conducted reviews and investigations on the 
Gulf War veterans. We will also hear from advocates of veterans from 
the Gulf War, who will provide recommendations to ensure the health of 
today's troops.
  As a subcommittee with jurisdiction over the VA health care system, 
and as a Member of Congress with a strong interest in and support of 
our military, we want this hearing to serve as a public record of our 
concerns about those being deployed in harm's way on foreign shores 
today. We must take steps necessary to ensure that these veterans have 
a healthy life when they return home.
  I hope tomorrow's hearing will be informative for everyone and will 
lead us to better solutions for the concerns that arose after Desert 
Storm, Somalia, Kosovo, Bosnia, and other recent military operations.
  The active duty and reservists, some 70,180 that have been called to 
serve in this war on terrorism, whether in Central Asia or elsewhere, 
will be veterans of the future. It is our responsibility as Members of 
Congress to help ensure that troop health is maintained and that our 
veterans return with the greatest possibility of leading a normal 
healthy life.

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