Chapter 278

HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION No. 5046 A Concurrent Resolution memorializing the President and the United States Congress to take action to identify, locate and provide funds for research and treatment of Gulf War illness among Persian Gulf War Veterans and their families; to work jointly with private research facilities; to review and declassify information on this illness; and place a moratorium on blood, blood products and organ donations by Gulf War Veterans.

WHEREAS, More than 600,000 members of the United States Armed Forces, including activated units of the Ready Reserve and National Guard, were deployed to the Persian Gulf region in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm to liberate Kuwait; and

WHEREAS, United States service personnel were exposed not only to the hazards of war, but to an unknown variety of potential health haz- ards, including exposure to smoke from oil well fires, depleted uranium and infectious biological weapons; and

WHEREAS, More than 55,000 individuals who served in Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm have reported wide-ranging medical problems that began during service, or shortly after their return from the Persian Gulf, a significant number of which have not been ac- curately diagnosed or treated; and

WHEREAS, There is evidence that family members of Gulf War vet- erans are experiencing health problems similar in nature to those of the veterans, including abnormal numbers of birth defects in children con- ceived by Gulf War veterans; and

WHEREAS, In November 1994, Congress enacted the Persian Gulf War Veterans' Act, authorizing the Department of Veterans Affairs to compensate any Persian Gulf War veteran suffering from a chronic dis- ability resulting from undiagnosed illnesses that occurred either during active duty or within a certain period following service in the Persian Gulf War; and

WHEREAS, The Department of Defense has been conducting re- search into the causes of symptoms that have collectively come to be called ``Gulf War Syndrome'' for over three years and during that time, the Department has failed to make any substantive scientific progress in determining the causes, effects, and transmissibility of, or treating this disabling and sometimes fatal syndrome: Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of Kansas, the Senate concurring therein: That we memorialize the President and the United States Congress to take action to identify, locate and provide funds for research and treatment of Gulf War related illnesses among Persian Gulf War Veterans, and, to that end, to work jointly with private research facilities; and

Be it further resolved: That we urge the President and the Congress of the United States, and the Department of Defense to review the ne- cessity for secrecy of all classified information bearing on the detrimental health effects that the Gulf War Veterans and their families are experi- encing, and to make any previously classified material available for pub- lication; and

Be it further resolved: That we urge the President and the Congress of the United States to place a moratorium on the donation of blood, blood products and organs by veterans of the Gulf War until a determi- nation regarding the communicability of these illnesses has been made; and

Be it further resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to send enrolled copies of this resolution to the President and Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the United States House of Repre- sentatives, to each member of the Kansas Congressional Delegation, to the Administrator of Veterans Affairs, to the Secretary of Defense and to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (Center for Disease Con- trol). [j82]House March 15, 1996 [j82]Senate March 27, 1996