EXTREMELY URGENT: U.S. Senate Cosigners Needed Now to Continue Gulf War Illness Treatment Development Program

(91outcomes.com) -- Gulf War veterans and their advocates are grateful that U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has just launched this year's annual effort in the U.S. Senate to fund the treatment-focused Gulf War Illness (GWI) Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP).  

However, there is an extremely short deadline for other Senators to cosign.   Cosigners are needed to help ensure this Gulf War Illness treatment development program is funded this year.  The deadline for cosigning is the close of business this Thursday, April 25, 2013. 

Specifically, the push is to urge U.S. Senators to sign onto the "Sanders Dear Colleague Letter" for FY14 Gulf War Illness CDMRP funding.  The text of the Sanders "Dear Colleague" letter is here.  

"This critically important treatment development program exists because countless Gulf War veterans and advocates contact their Members of Congress to ask that they sign on in support."

Sen. Sanders is Chairman of the U.S. Senate Veterans Affairs' Committee (SVAC) and a longstanding champion on Gulf War and others veterans' post-deployment health issues, including leading Senate efforts on this program for the last several years.

The Senate effort parallels one in the U.S. House of Representatives earlier this month, where Gulf War veterans saw a record level of bipartisan Congressional support.  


The GWI CDMRP has again been in the national news recently as a program that is working.  Here are details that can be shared with your U.S. Senators' staff members:

• One CDMRP-funded researcher, Dr. James Baraniuk of Georgetown University, has found additional, objective markers of brain damage in Gulf War Illness patients.  

• Another CDMRP-funded researcher, Dr. Ron Bach, has found additional evidence of chronic inflammation and hypercoagulation in Gulf War Illness.

• Still other CDMRP-funded researchers, Dr. Kim Sullivan, Dr. Nancy Klimas, and Dr. Lea Steele,  are among two CDMRP-funded consortia projects aimed at developing GWI treatments. 

• And Dr. Beatrice Golomb, whose CDMRP-funded research found that CoQ10 can help relieve pain and some other Gulf War Illness symptoms, continues not only with additional CDMRP-funded research, but is one more of this growing chorus of scientists and clinicians who, despite ongoing VA mismanagement, delays, denials, and obfuscation, recognize and are working towards the goal that effective Gulf War Illness treatments can likely be found. 

• And, even more GWI CDMRP research highlights are on the CDMRP website.

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ACTION ALERT: WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP

FY13 Gulf War Illness CDMRP Funding - U.S. Senate

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ACTION NEEDED:   Ask both of your two U.S. Senators to sign onto the "Sanders Dear Colleague Letter" for FY14 Gulf War Illness CDMRP funding.  

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DEADLINE:  Senators' Sign-On's must be made by Thursday, April 25, 2013 (VERY SHORT DEADLINE)

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STEP-BY STEP IN JUST 10 STEPS -- HOW TO CONTACT:  

1. Read this backgrounder, then Find your two Senators here.
• [Don't worry about Senators right now]
2. Check here to see if they signed onto last year's (FY13) request.  
• [If they didn't, don't worry about it, keep going with the request]
3. Call the Washington, DC office [not an office in the home state] and ask for the legislative staff person who handles Defense Appropriations.  
• If you get their voicemail, leave a detailed voicemail.
4. Explain that you are a constituent, and very briefly (a couple sentences at most) state your connection to Gulf War Illness.  
• [For example:  "I'm one of the one in three Gulf War veterans suffering from Gulf War Illness".  
• Or, "I'm the wife/husband/son/daughter/parent of a Gulf War veteran suffering from Gulf War Illness."
• Or, "I'm one of many other veterans besides those who served in the Gulf War and I'm also suffering for chronic multisymptom illness, commonly known as Gulf War Illness."
• Etc.
5. Explain that there is a "Dear Colleague" letter that you are specifically requesting the Senator sign onto.  
6. Provide the name of the "Dear Colleague" letter:  the "Sanders Dear Colleague Letter" for FY14 Gulf War Illness CDMRP funding.  
7. State that there is a very short sign-on deadline:  By close of business (COB) Thursday, April 25, 2013... and that you know the Senator will likely want to support the one-third of Gulf War veterans and others suffering from Gulf War Illness.  
• [If they signed on last year, state that you know they will likely want to sign on again this year]
8. Ask that the staff person follow-up with you to let you know the Senator's decision.
9. Thank the staff person for their time.
10. Follow-up to find out the status, if you haven't heard back. 

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TIPS:

• Be polite
• Be pleasant
• Be urgent
• Be respectful
• Be convincing
• Be brief
• Be SPECIFIC with the REQUEST:  Sign onto the Bipartisan "Sanders Dear Colleague Letter" for FY14 Gulf War Illness CDMRP funding.  

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PRESS COVERAGE OF GWI CDMRP RESEARCH

(You can cut-and-paste this to share with your Senators' staffers)

There has been quite a bit of recent media coverage of the latest successes of this small, nimble program, made possible through the Congressionally directed funding of this unique Gulf War Illness treatment development program: 

•   Boston Globe, 4/24/2013:  “After two decades of waiting, Gulf War Vets see new hope”

•   USA Today, 3/20/2013: “Researchers tie Gulf War Illness to brain damage”

•   Science Daily, 3/20/2013: “Gulf War Illness linked to physical changes in brain fibers that process pain”

•   Reno Dispatch, 3/21/2013: “One thing our government is doing right for veterans”

•   NBC7-San Diego, 3/22/2013: “Researchers look to cure Gulf War Illness”

•   Palm Beach (FL) Sun-Sentinel, 3/7/2013: “NSU putting mystery diseases under microscope”

•   NPR Science Friday, 3/22/2013, “Scientists search for Gulf War Illness Answers”

•   NBC News, 3/20/2013: “Imaging study may show brain changes in Gulf War Illness”

•   New Scientist, 3/21/2013, “Brain circuits uniquely disrupted in Gulf War Syndrome”

•   Army Times, 3/20/2013, “Study: MRI could diagnose Gulf War Illness”

•   BU Today, 2/19/2013, “Closing in on a medical mystery: SPH leads team searching for Gulf War Illness answers”

•   Newser, 3/21/2013: “Gulf War Syndrome Discovery is ‘Huge’”

•   Maine Public Broadcasting Network, 4/22/2013, “Gulf War Syndrome Study: Maine Soldiers Hope for a Cure”