(USS CARBONERO SS-337 was part of this testing)

Congress is considering a bill that would allow the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to provide priority healthcare for thousands of veterans who were exposed to chemical and biological testing during the 1960s and 1970s.

Rep. Ciro Rodriquez (D., Texas), the ranking democrat on the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on health, introduced the bill (H.R. 2433) last month in response to a request from the Bush administration, as part of its Fiscal Year 04 budget request, to authorize care for these veterans. As many as 6,000 veterans might qualify for improved benefits because of their participation in Project 112.

Following complaints from Vietnam-era veterans in the late 1990s, the Pentagon last year admitted conducting a series of secret, multi-national chemical and biological tests over land and sea, during that era, under a program known as Project 112. The Department of Defense (DoD) said the experiments were conducted to assess the effects of agents of mass destruction on military assets and personnel.

Under the aegis of Project 112, the military conducted a series of tri-Service tests called Project SHAD (Shipboard Hazard and Defense), by which agents were sprayed from the air onto ships at sea. Though the military employed rhesus monkeys as test subjects in some cases, a number of veterans have testified to Congress that the military used Navy enlisted personnel as unwitting test subjects.

The Rodriguez bill would amend Title 38 to allow VA to examine veterans who participated in the tests for illnesses relating to chemical and biological exposure and to provide them with priority healthcare. To date, the Defense Department has turned over to VA the names of over 5800 veterans who were assigned to units that are known to have participated in Project 112 tests.

Under an agreement with DoD, VA will notify all veterans identified, and advise them of the improved benefits that are available at VA Healthcare facilities.