U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) and U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) this week led a bipartisan, bicameral request seeking an update from the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) on efforts to prevent traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) among U.S. military service members.
“Given the potential for serious long-term effects of TBIs, DOD must continue to take steps to protect and treat service members who have been exposed to significant blast exposure,” wrote Sen. Ernst, Rep. Bacon, and their colleagues in a Feb. 11 letter they sent to U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Sen. Ernst serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, while Rep. Bacon is a co-chair of the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force.
The lawmakers, who were joined by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-NJ) in signing the letter, cited recent reports that more than 100 American service members suffered TBIs due to the Iranian missile strike in Iraq last month, according to their letter.
“The incremental increase in reported TBIs highlights the varying degree of severity of TBIs and the potential for the late onset of symptoms,” the members wrote.
Sen. Ernst, Rep. Bacon, and their colleagues noted that members of the U.S. Armed Forces “face a significantly higher risk of suffering a TBI due to near-constant exposure to blast pressure as a result of improvised explosive devices, or smaller concussive events such as firing artillery and other heavy-caliber weapons.”
Such increased and repeated exposure, they wrote, have made TBIs “the signature wound” suffered by service members in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The lawmakers reminded Esper that DOD is mandated by the National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2020 to include blast exposure history in each service member’s medical records to allow DOD to better track and hopefully prevent TBIs.
“We respectfully request that you provide us with an update on DOD’s inclusion of blast exposure in medical records,” they wrote.