Donald Riegle: “Finally, we are going to be reviewing the Export Administration Act reauthorization in the Banking Committee, this year…”

“Finally, we are going to be reviewing the Export Administration Act reauthorization in the Banking Committee, this year in the months ahead. I am going to be taking testimony and calling in witnesses on this matter. I want to find out what happened here. We now know a lot more than we did know. We know the United States, at the highest levels, authorized these shipments and sent these materials over to Saddam Hussein, and they may now be circling around and coming back to haunt us in the form of a lot of sick veterans, and, increasingly, their family members. It is time we get the answers. I do not want to hear it said that we do not have money to do this medical research and give these veterans the help. There was no question of money on the way into the war. Anything that was needed, there was money there for it, no matter how many bombing runs, or this, that, or the other thing. There was plenty of money to fight the war. Well, there has to be enough now to heal the wounded who have come back from that war. It is time we get at it. So I ask the attention of my colleagues on this. I hope you will assign a staff member to it, and I hope you will meet with the veterans of Desert Storm in your State who are sick and talk to them and some of their family members. You will see what I am talking about. Let us force some action on this issue. I think our veterans deserve it.”