House Includes Kucinich Amendment Doubling Gulf War Illness Defense Medical Treatment Research Funding

Written by Anthony Hardie, 91outcomes.com


(Washington, DC - 91outcomes.com) -- The U.S. House of Representatives today included an amendment to this year's Defense spending bill that would add $10 million in medical treatment research for Gulf War Illness, a debilitating condition estimated by official sources to affect more than one in three veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.

The amendment, authored by outgoing Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and included in the full Fiscal Year 2013 Defense Appropriations Act on a voice vote on the House floor this evening, represents a major victory for 250,000 ill Gulf War veterans after a series of setbacks in recent months with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

Gulf War veterans' advocates were angered in recent weeks by an unexpected, two-thirds VA budget cut for Gulf War Illness research quietly tucked into the VA budget request, which passed the House intact.  

And last week, the Congressionally chartered Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (RAC) issued a scathing report blasting the VA not only for the secretive budget cut, but also for a litany of failures including a refusal to implement laws related to Gulf War veterans' health, misrepresenting medical research related to Gulf War Illness including in reports to Congress, and ignoring medical experts in a national survey expected to damage already deteriorating relations between Gulf War veterans and VA.

The Kucinich amendment essentially reverses the $10 million VA budget cut -- with a twist -- by instead directing the funding to the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP).  The Defense program is immensely popular with Gulf War veterans and medical researchers alike.

The Defense spending bill is expected to pass the House this week, though prospects for action in the Senate are reportedly dim until after the November elections.

In any event Rep. Kucinich enjoys the support of veterans across the nation for his advocacy and unyielding support of Gulf War veterans in particular and veterans in general. We have never had a truer friend.
In any event Rep. Kucinich enjoys the support of veterans across the nation for his advocacy and unyielding support of Gulf War veterans in particular and veterans in general.
We have never had a truer friend.