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Gulf War Illnesses Hearing Committee On S. HRG. 106–843 GULF WAR ILLNESSES HEARING BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SPECIAL HEARING OCTOBER 12, 2000—WASHINGTON, DC Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/senate U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 69–414 cc WASHINGTON : 2001 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS TED STEVENS, Alaska, Chairman THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii PETE V. DOMENICI, New Mexico ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont SLADE GORTON, Washington FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky TOM HARKIN, Iowa CONRAD BURNS, Montana BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HARRY REID, Nevada JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire HERB KOHL, Wisconsin ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah PATTY MURRAY, Washington BEN NIGHTHORSE CAMPBELL, Colorado BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota LARRY CRAIG, Idaho DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois JON KYL, Arizona STEVEN J. CORTESE, Staff Director LISA SUTHERLAND, Deputy Staff Director JAMES H. ENGLISH, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania, Chairman THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi TOM HARKIN, Iowa SLADE GORTON, Washington ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii LARRY CRAIG, Idaho HARRY REID, Nevada KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas HERB KOHL, Wisconsin TED STEVENS, Alaska PATTY MURRAY, Washington JON KYL, Arizona DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia (Ex officio) Professional Staff BETTILOU TAYLOR MARY DIETRICH JIM SOURWINE ELLEN MURRAY (Minority) Administrative Support KEVIN JOHNSON CAROLE GEAGLEY (Minority) (II) CONTENTS Page Opening statement of Senator Arlen Specter ........................................................ 1 Opening statement of Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison .......................................... 2 Statement of Bernard D. Rostker, Ph.D., Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness, Department of Defense ..................................................................... 3 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 5 Statement of John R. Feussner, M.D., Chief Research and Development Offi- cer, Department of Veterans Affairs .................................................................. 6 Statement of, Dr. Mark Brown, Director of Environmental Agent Services, Department of Veterans Affairs .......................................................................... 6 Prepared statement of John R. Feussner .............................................................. 8 Statement of Drue H. Barrett, Ph.D., Chief, Health Activity Working Group, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Health and Human Services ................................................................................................... 15 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 17 Statement of Robert G. Claypool, M.D., Executive Director, Military and Veterans Health Coordinating Board ................................................................. 21 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 23 Statement of Harold C. Sox, Jr., M.D., professor and chair, Department of Medicine, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center .......................................... 32 Statement of Dr. Samuel Potolikio, professor of neurology, George Washington University ............................................................................................................. 32 Prepared statement of Harold C. Sox, Jr .............................................................. 35 Statement of Robert W. Haley, M.D., professor of epidemiology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center .............................................................. 37 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 42 Statement of Hon. Max Cleland, U.S. Senator from Georgia .............................. 43 Statement of Ross Perot, president, CEO and chairman, Perot Systems Corp ....................................................................................................................... 45 Statement of Captain Julia Dyckman, U.S. Navy Reserve (Retired) .................. 48 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 51 (III) GULF WAR ILLNESSES THURSDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2000 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON LABOR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, AND EDUCATION, AND RELATED AGENCIES, COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met at 9:30 a.m., in room SD–124, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Arlen Specter (chairman) presiding. Present: Senators Specter, Gorton, and Hutchison. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ARLEN SPECTER Senator SPECTER. Ladies and gentlemen, the hearing of the Ap- propriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health, Human Services and Education will now proceed. The focus of our hearing this morning is to examine the findings of the report by the Institute of Medicine, which was filed approxi- mately a month ago on September 7, concerning Gulf war syn- drome. There have been extensive hearings on this very perplexing prob- lem. Back in September of 1996 there was a joint hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee with the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. At that time, I chaired the Intelligence Committee. We have had a series of hearings in the Veterans Affairs Committee and had commissioned a special study. Former U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Michael Rotco, who conducted a long study, published a very voluminous report. Senator Rockefeller and I felt that there was a connection be- tween these ailments of Gulf war syndrome, but the medical evi- dence has been complicated and not decisive. There are more than 125,000 veterans from the Gulf war who have complained of a vari- ety of ailments. They were exposed to some 33 toxic agents. I will not go into them at this time because our witnesses will be doing that. There has been an important Center for Disease Control study, which had found that Gulf war military personnel were more likely than those who did not serve in the Gulf war to report symptoms suggestive of cognitive dysfunction, depression, chronic fatigue, post traumatic stress disorder, and respiratory illnesses. That com- posite would be known generally as Gulf war syndrome. I have conducted a series of hearings in my own State of Penn- sylvania and have found many people complaining about very seri- ous maladies, having been exposed to these toxic substances. (1) 2 One of the perplexing problems was the failure of the Depart- ment of Defense to make candid disclosures as to what people faced at Khamisiyah. Finally it came to light, only as a result of hearings and investigations, and underscored the need for more candor by the Department of Defense. And this whole issue illustrates the im- portance of taking care of our Gulf war veterans and trying to de- fine and determine as best we can the scientific causes. Today’s hearing was requested specially by my distinguished col- league from Texas, Kay Bailey Hutchison, who has a special inter- est in this subject. And she is a very valued member of the sub- committee; as a matter of fact, the full committee; as a matter of fact, the full Senate. So we are delighted to see Senator Hutchison here. And I now yield to you, Kay. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON Senator HUTCHISON. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. And I do want to thank you for calling this hearing, because I think it is timely that we look into this. And I know all of you have testified before congressional committees before. But I think that the House committee in the last couple of weeks has opened this issue. There was an article just a couple of weeks ago about yet an- other study, saying that there is no link between toxins and gulf illnesses. But, Mr. Chairman, like you, I was on the Intelligence Com- mittee when we started looking at some of these studies. And I was on the Armed Services Committee when we got the early testimony from the Department of Defense that basically said Gulf war syn- drome was just psycho-somatic. That was the early testimony. But then, as we have gone down the road, as I have talked to veterans in my home State, where people have just come up to me not even knowing of all of the studies that have been done, not even knowing that there is something out there for them, but they talk about their symptoms. And then I have been very interested in the initial studies from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, which I think really starts pinpointing something that we can hold onto, that says basically if there is a certain brain receptor, you are going to be more susceptible to chemical gases. And I think that warrants much further study and perhaps could be used for preventive measures for the chemical warfare that we might look to be involved in in the future
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