[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 2 (Monday, January 13, 1997)]
[Pages 11-14]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Receiving the Report of the Presidential Advisory Committee 
on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses and an Exchange With Reporters

January 7, 1997

    The President. Thank you very much to Dr. Lashof and the members of 
the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnesses, Secretary 
White, Secretary Brown, Secretary Shalala, Deputy Director Tenet. I'd 
like to say a special word of thanks to Dr. Jack Gibbons for the work 
that he did on this. I thank Senator Rockefeller, Senator Specter, 
Congressman Lane Evans for their interest and their pursuit of this 
issue, and all the representatives of the military and veterans 
organizations who are here.
    I am pleased to accept this report. I thank Dr. Lashof and the 
committee for their extremely thorough and dedicated work over 18 months 
now. I pledge to you and to all the veterans of this country, we will 
now match your efforts with our action.
    Six years ago hundreds of thousands of Americans defended our vital 
interest in the Persian Gulf. They faced a dangerous enemy, harsh 
conditions, lengthy isolation from their

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families. And they went to victory for our country with lightning speed. 
When they came home, for reasons that we still don't fully understand, 
thousands of them became ill. They served their country with courage and 
skill and strength, and they must now know that they can rely upon us. 
And we must not, and will not, let them down.
    Three years ago I asked the Secretaries of Defense, Health and Human 
Services, and Veterans Affairs to form the Persian Gulf Veterans 
Coordinating Board to strengthen our efforts to care for our veterans 
and find the causes of their illnesses. I signed landmark legislation 
that pays disability benefits to Gulf war veterans with undiagnosed 
illnesses. DOD and VA established toll-free lines and medical evaluation 
programs.
    I am especially grateful to the First Lady who took this matter to 
heart and first brought it to my attention quite a long while ago now. I 
thank her for reaching out to the veterans and for making sure that 
their voices would be heard.
    To date, we have provided Gulf war veterans with more than 80,000 
free medical exams. We've approved more than 26,000 disability claims. 
HHS, DOD, and the Veterans Department have sponsored more than 70 
research projects to identify the possible causes of the illnesses.
    But early on, it became clear that answers were not emerging fast 
enough. Hillary and I shared the frustration and concerns of many 
veterans and their families. We realized the issues were so complex they 
demanded a more comprehensive effort. That is why, in May of 1995, I 
asked some of our Nation's best doctors and scientists, as well as Gulf 
war veterans themselves, to form a Presidential advisory committee that 
could provide an open and thorough and independent review of the 
Government's response to veterans' health concerns and the causes of 
their ailments.
    Since that time, we have made some real progress. The Department of 
Defense with the CIA launched a review of more than 5 million pages of 
Gulf war documents, declassifying some 23,000 pages of materials and 
putting them on the Internet. Through this effort, we discovered 
important information concerning the possible exposure of our troops to 
chemical agents in the wake of our destruction of an arms depot in 
southern Iraq.
    The committee made clear and the Defense Department agrees that this 
new information demands a new approach, focusing on what happened not 
only during but after the war and what it could mean for our troops. 
Based on the committee's guidance, the Department of Defense has 
restructured and intensified its efforts, increasing tenfold its 
investigating team, tracking down and talking to veterans who may have 
been exposed to chemical agents, and devoting millions of dollars to 
research on the possible effects of low-level chemical exposure.
    I'm determined that this investigation will be comprehensive and 
credible. We haven't ended the suffering. We don't have all the answers, 
and I won't be satisfied until we have done everything humanly possible 
to find them.
    That's why I welcome this committee's report and its suggestions on 
how to make our commitment even stronger. I also take seriously the 
concern regarding DOD's investigation of possible chemical exposure. I'm 
determined to act swiftly on these findings not only to help the 
veterans who are sick but to apply the lessons of this experience to the 
future.
    I've asked the Secretaries of Defense, Health and Human Services, 
and Veterans Affairs to report to me in 60 days with concrete, specific 
action plans for implementing these recommendations. And I am directing 
Secretary-designate Cohen, when confirmed by the Senate, to make this a 
top priority of the Defense Department. I'm also announcing two other 
immediate initiatives.
    First, I've asked this committee to stay in business for 9 more 
months to provide independent, expert oversight of DOD's efforts to 
investigate chemical exposure, and also to monitor the Governmentwide 
response to the broader recommendations. The committee's persistent 
public effort has helped to bring much new information to light, and I 
have instructed them to fulfill their oversight role with the same 
intensity, resolve, and vigor they have brought to their work so far. 
Dr. Lashof has agreed to continue, and I

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trust the other committee members will as well.
    Second, I'm accepting Secretary Brown's proposal to reconsider the 
regulation that Gulf war veterans with undiagnosed illnesses must prove 
their disabilities emerged within 2 years of their return in order to be 
eligible for benefits. Experience has shown that many disabled veterans 
have their claims denied because they fall outside the 2-year timeframe. 
I've asked Secretary Brown to report back to me in 60 days with a view 
toward extending that limit.
    And we will do whatever we can and whatever it takes to research 
Gulf war illnesses as thoroughly as possible. Every credible possibility 
must be fully explored, including low-level chemical exposure and combat 
stress.
    I know that Congress shares our deep concern, and let me again thank 
Senator Specter, Senator Rockefeller, and Congressman Evans for being 
here. Caring for our veterans is not a partisan issue. It is a national 
obligation, and I thank them for the approach that they have taken.
    As we continue to investigate Gulf war illnesses, let me again take 
this opportunity to urge the Congress to ratify the Chemical Weapons 
Convention which would make it harder for rogue states to acquire 
chemical weapons in the future, and protect the soldiers of the United 
States and our allies in the future.
    This report is not the end of the road, any more than it is the 
beginning. We have a lot of hard work that's been done, and we have made 
some progress, but the task is far from over. The committee's assessment 
gives me confidence that we are on the right track, but we have much yet 
to learn and much to do.
    As we do make progress, we will make our findings public. We will be 
open in how we view Gulf war illnesses and all their possible causes, 
open to the veterans whose care is in our hands, open to the public 
looking to us for answers. I pledge to our veterans and to every 
American, we will not stop until we have done all we can to care for our 
Gulf war veterans, to find out why they are sick, and to help to make 
them healthy again.
    Thank you very much.
    Q. Mr. President, this has been studied to death. Do you believe 
that there is a Gulf war illness?
    The President. I believe that there are a lot of veterans who got 
sick as a result of their service in the Gulf. And I leave it to the 
experts to determine whether there is one or a proliferation of them and 
exactly what the causal connections were. That has been apparent for 
some time. That's why the Congress agreed to support our efforts that 
for the first time gave disability payments for people with undiagnosed 
conditions.
    But let me say that I think that this committee has done a good job. 
I think--I want to compliment the work that has been done in the last 
few months by John White in the Defense Department in facing up to the 
things which were not done before. No one has ever suggested that 
anybody intentionally imposed--exposed American soldiers to these 
dangers, and there is nothing--there is no reason that anyone in this 
Government should ever do anything but just try to get to the truth and 
get it out and do what is right by the veterans.
    And there are also--I think we need to be a little humble about 
this. There are a lot of things that we still don't know. That's what 
Dr. Lashof said. And that's why these research projects are so very 
important.
    And the final thing I'd like to say is we don't know all the answer 
here. You heard that--Dr. Lashof said that sometimes, when people are 
exposed to substances that can cause cancer, it may not be manifest for 
10 years, which is why I want to thank Secretary Brown for urging that 
we scrap the 2-year rule. We have to be vigilant about this. And my 
successor will be working on this. We will be monitoring this for a long 
time to come.
    But we've got a process now the American people and the veterans and 
their families can have confidence in. We've got the appropriate 
commitment of personnel and money. And more important, we've got the 
appropriate commitment of the heart and the mind. And I'm convinced now 
that we will do justice to this issue and to the people that have been 
affected by it.

Note: The President spoke at 10:55 a.m. in the Roosevelt Room at the 
White House. In his remarks, he referred to Joyce Lashof, chair, Presi

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dential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses.