Tom Harkin: “I rise to offer an amendment important to Persian Gulf War veterans. My amendment increases Department of Defense…”

“I rise to offer an amendment important to Persian Gulf War veterans. My amendment increases Department of Defense spending on research to determine the causes and possible treatments of those suffering from Gulf War illnesses by $10 million. It is my understanding that the amendment has been accepted by the bill managers on both sides. While the Persian Gulf War ended in 1991, the physical and psychological ordeal for many of the nearly 700,000 troops who served our country in Operation Desert Storm and Desert Shield has not ended. It's been seven years since our troops were winning the war in the Gulf. Unfortunately, they continue to suffer due to their deployment. Many of our troops returned from the Persian Gulf suffering from a variety of symptoms that have been difficult to trace to a single source or substance. Our veterans have experienced a combination of symptoms in varying degrees of seriousness, including: fatigue, skin rash, muscle and joint pain, headache, loss of memory, shortness of breath, and gastrointestinal and respiratory problems. Unfortunately, the initial response from the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs was to express skepticism about veterans' and their loved ones who dealt with the very real affects of their service in the Gulf.”