Shaheen Leads Provisions to Direct U.S. Government Response to Directed Energy Attacks Against U.S. Personnel in Committee-Approved Defense Bill
(Washington, DC) – U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), announced that two provisions pertaining to the U.S. Government’s response to directed energy attacks against U.S. personnel were included in the SASC-approved National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for fiscal year (FY)2022. Shaheen has long led measures in the Senate to support public servants and their loved ones who have incurred brain and other injuries from probable directed energy attacks.
Specifically, Shaheen included language in the defense legislation that would mandate greater congressional oversight on directed energy attack-related items by requiring quarterly reports to Congress on the ongoing investigation into causation, mitigation efforts and treatment of personnel. Shaheen’s provision also extensively speaks about the threat posed by these incidents, the importance of providing equitable and accessible care to victims, the need to develop and promulgate workforce guidance to protect Department of Defense personnel and their families, and urges the President to designate a senior official to lead the interagency response.
Additionally, Shaheen supported Senator Cotton (R-AK) and Senator Gillibrand’s (D-NY) successful effort to include bipartisan legislation, which Shaheen cosponsors, to ensure wounded officers and their families have immediate access to specialized medical facilities at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The FY22 NDAA was passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee. It will next be considered by the full Senate.
“It’s shameful that U.S. public servants and their loved ones afflicted by these directed energy attacks have endured such hardships to access the care they need, and that we still do not have clarity on the causation. Over several years, a growing number of Americans have fallen victim. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this demands the full attention and weight of the U.S. government in response,” said Shaheen. “The priorities secured in the defense bill make progress on efforts in Congress and I hope will put additional pressure on federal agencies to use every tool available to uncover the causation of these attacks and ensure those suffering from injuries can access the medical care they need to get well. I’ve worked across the aisle in Congress to make responding to these incidents a priority and that work will continue – our public servants and their families need to know that they are not alone, that we believe them and that their government will leave no stone unturned to get to the bottom of these attacks.”
Senator Shaheen has stood by government employees and their families who have suffered from these mysterious injuries, and leads efforts in Congress to provide them critical health benefits. In the FY2021 NDAA that became law, Shaheen successfully included language to expand a provision in law that she previously wrote to provide long-term, emergency care benefits to all U.S. Government employees and their dependents who were mysteriously injured while working in China and Cuba. Shaheen’s measure to amend the law followed her letter with Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) last May calling on the administration to interpret the law as intended by Congress.
On the TODAY Show last year, Shaheen responded to the findings of a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report on these injuries and underscored the urgent need to take action to address these attacks that have targeted American public servants and their families. Despite Shaheen’s calls for former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to come before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to address what the Trump administration was doing to uncover the source of these attacks and protect American public servants, Pompeo never appeared. Pompeo also never responded to bipartisan calls in the Senate led by Shaheen to detail how the Trump administration would respond to the findings of the NAS report. During Secretary of State Blinken’s confirmation hearing, Shaheen reiterated that uncovering the causation of these attacks and assisting those who’ve been injured must be top priorities for the Biden administration. In February, Shaheen spoke with CNN in an exclusive interview on developments to uncover the source of targeted directed energy attacks against U.S. personnel and their families.
