Political Quotes

“As a gulf war and Iraq war veteran, I am grateful for the leadership of the gentleman from Florida, Chairman Miller, on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and for his support of H.R. 4261. H.R. 4261, the Gulf War Health Research Reform Act of 2014, which I sponsored along with Ranking Member Kirkpatrick and full committee Ranking Member Michaud, restores the independence of the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses to perform the role it has historically played, as intended by Congress, to improve the lives of ill gulf war veterans. This bill is necessary because some career VA staff have been trying to revive the discredited 1990s fiction that nothing special happened to gulf war veterans' health and that the problems experienced by gulf war veterans are just ``what happens after every war'' due to psychological stress factors. Because there is no scientific evidence for this position, VA staffers have resorted to manipulating research studies and reports to try and revive this discredited theory. A major new VA gulf war veteran survey, for example, included the questions necessary to identify PTSD but not Gulf War illness. Most shockingly, VA has even manipulated new research of the Institute of Medicine by limiting the terms of its contracts. VA transformed the Institute of Medicine gulf war treatments study ordered by Congress into a report based largely on psychotherapies.…”