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For Immediate Release
Contact:

Nathan White
(202)225-5871

Kucinich Secures $8 Million For Gulf War Veterans Illness Research

Money Will Expand On Studies For Treatment, Bringing Us Closer To Identifying A Cure

WASHINGTON

Congressman
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) secured a major victory for veterans of the
first Gulf War by garnering $8 million for Gulf War Illness (GWI)
research in the Fiscal Year 2010 Appropriations bill that passed the
House yesterday.
"This
research will build on previous studies on Gulf War Illness." Kucinich
said. "This funding will take giant steps forward in identifying a
treatment or a cure for Gulf War Veteran's illness."
In
its landmark 454-page report delivered in November, the
Congressionally-mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War
Veterans Illnesses at the Department of Veterans Affairs (RAC) reported
that "Gulf War illness is real, that it is the result of neurotoxin
exposures during Gulf War deployment and that few veterans have
recovered or substantially improved with time."
For
the first time, the report identified several suspected causes and two
known causes: exposure to pesticides and a drug given to troops to
protect them from nerve gas.
"There
are currently no effective treatments for these conditions. With
research, we learn the true causes of GWI and the possibilities open
up. We must continue to attack GWI and fund the research with an
amount commensurate with the scope of the problem," said Kucinich.
Kucinich's
request for funding received bipartisan support from Reps. Henry Brown,
Holt, Filner, Michaud, Baldwin, C. Brown, Conyers, Edwards, Grijalva,
Hall, Maloney, McDermott, D. Moore, G. Moore, Pascrell, Pingree, Ross,
Sestak, Stark and Yarmuth.

Dennis Kucinich is an American politician. A U.S. Representative from Ohio from 1997 to 2013, he was also a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States in 2004 and 2008.