[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 18]
[Senate]
[Page 25674]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

                                 ______
                                 

  SENATE RESOLUTION 332--EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF THE SENATE THAT THE 
  DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE AND THE DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS SHOULD 
         INCREASE THEIR INVESTMENT IN PAIN MANAGEMENT RESEARCH

  Ms. MIKULSKI (for herself and Mr. Cardin) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Armed Services:

                              S. Res. 332

       Whereas the characteristics of modern warfare, including 
     the global war on terror, expose members of the uniformed 
     services to many adverse and dangerous environment-related 
     diseases and living conditions;
       Whereas today's war zone conditions, including areas 
     replete with noxious gases released from explosive devices in 
     Iraq and Afghanistan, produce traumatic, life-altering 
     battlefield injuries in degrees unheard of in previous wars 
     including infections, instant crushing of skulls and other 
     bones, loss of sight and limbs, dehydration, blood and other 
     body infections, and, in some cases, severe impairment or 
     total loss of mental and physical functions;
       Whereas military medical rapid response teams provide 
     superb, state of the art, life-saving medical and 
     psychological treatment and care at battlefield sites with an 
     extraordinarily high success rate;
       Whereas military, Department of Veterans Affairs, and 
     specialty civilian health care treatment facilities are 
     overburdened with caring for the most serious and most 
     painful battlefield casualties ever witnessed from war; and
       Whereas the Nation's medical and mental health care 
     professionals have not been provided with sufficient 
     resources to adequately research, diagnose, treat, and manage 
     acute and chronic pain associated with present day 
     battlefield casualties: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That it is the sense of the Senate that--
       (1) Federal funding for pain management research, treatment 
     and therapies at the Department of Defense, Department of 
     Veterans Affairs and at the National Institutes of Health 
     should be significantly increased;
       (2) Congress and the administration should redouble their 
     efforts to ensure that an effective pain management program 
     is uniformly established and implemented for military and 
     Department of Veterans Affairs treatment facilities; and
       (3) the Department of Defense and the Department of 
     Veterans Affairs should increase their investment in pain 
     management clinical research by improving and accelerating 
     clinical trials at military and Department of Veterans 
     Affairs treatment facilities and affiliated university 
     medical centers and research programs.

                          ____________________