Veterans for Common Sense et al v. Nicholson et al

Filing 129

Attachment 2
Declaration of Stacey Sprenkel in Support of Plaintiffs' 88 Motion for Preliminary Injunction Reply filed byVeterans United for Truth, Inc, Veterans for Common Sense. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit A, # 2 Exhibit B, # 3 Exhibit C, # 4 Exhibit D, # 5 Exhibit E, # 6 Exhibit F, # 7 Exhibit G, # 8 Exhibit H, # 9 Exhibit I, # 10 Exhibit J)(Sprenkel, Stacey) (Filed on 2/11/2008) Modified on 2/12/2008 (aaa, Court Staff).

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Veterans for Common Sense et al v. Nicholson et al Doc. 129 Att. 2 Dockets.Justia.com mony on draft legislation which sou ht to foster those ob'ectives. The draft bill proposed the establisfment of a special eifbility provision to ensure VA care of veterans of future combat eployments; creation of a national center on war-related illnesses; extension of VA's special authority for care of Persian Gulf War veterans; and elevation of the priority for care assigned those and other veterans. NATIONAL CENTER FOR STUDY OF WAR-RELATED ILLNESSES Witnesses at that session expressed strong support for the concept of VA's establishing a national center for the study of war-related illnesses. The Director of the Medical Follow-up Agency at the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Richard Miller, characterized the proposed center as "an excellent and long overdue effort to elucidate the causes of a major portion of veteran illnesses." Miller testified that a "center organized around the phenomenon of war-related illnesses, rather than a single discipline or disease, can bring together the aypropriate mix of expertise and foster appropriate collaborations. ' He expressed the view that such a center should fund studies of the causes of war-related illness, and described as "essential" epidemiolo 'c studies of risk factors for developing war-related illness with t e goal of preventing them or at least ameliorating their effects. Attesting to the benefit of such a center, Miller also stated that, 'The lack of a ready answer to the cause of these illnesses exhibited by Persian Gulf veterans suggests the need to look at the problem in new ways. He advised that such a center could have major im lications for health care generally "since it is clear that medica fy unexplained illnesses are by no means limited to veteran populations." Echoing the broad support for establishing such a center, VA's Deputy Under Secretary for Health, Dr. Thomas Garthwaite, cited such a center as one that would "enhance our ability to create a comprehensive program for post-war clinical care, medical education, health risk communication and research . . . , We believe a Center such as the one proposed has the potential to significantly enhance the medical community's ability to address the needs of future wartime veterans." Aa several witnesses testified, such a center should be multi-disciplinary, and active partnership and collaboration with the Deartment of Defense are esaential. The Committee recognizes that cannot mount such an effort alone. As described by one expert Dr. Matthew Friedman, Director of the National Center for post: Traumatic Stress Disorder, "the best chance for prevention, early detection, and rapid treatment of war-related illnesses is while men and women are still in uniform. To defer proactive medical stratees until after completion of military service is to wait much too Such a center must, for example, become a repository of deployment health and environmental surveillance data. To achieve the greatest effectiveness, VA and DoD must coordinate closely to ensure timely transfer of such DoD data, which is criticd to the conduct of future research. While requiring that a center employ an interdisciplinary approach to the study of war-related illnesses, the reported bill vests discretion in the VA regarding the structure of such center. There 'f b'~

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