WASHINGTON, DC- A General Accounting Office study indicates little has been done to protect veterans from abuses in medical research and that the pattern is not confined to the West Los Angeles VA facility where concerns originated, according to Rep. Terry Everett (R-AL). Rep. Everett, Chairman of the House VA Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, has scheduled a hearing to review that GAO study at 10 a.m. on September 29 in the Cannon Hearing Room. He ordered the GAO study after the April 1999 hearing on suspension of all medical research at the West Los Angeles VA medical facility. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the VA suspended research at the two facilities even before reports of veterans being subjected to medical procedures without their consent. The GAO now is expected to document a similar lack of safeguards at eight other VA medical centers.

After the 1999 hearing, Everett and other lawmakers sent a strongly worded letter to the VA demanding to know why specific allegations of abuse were not reported to the proper authorities within the VA and HHS. "Eighteen months later the VA still can't assure this Subcommittee or the veterans' community that medical research safety is significantly better," Everett said. "I've read the GAO testimony, and it's painfully obvious the VA hasn't been aggressive in setting up safeguards to protect the rights of veterans participating in medical experiments. The GAO has found a 'disturbing pattern of noncompliance' with mandated safeguards, and I want to know why. The operative word seems to be 'slow.'"

To get more answers, Chairman Everett will call on officials from the Veterans Health Administration, HHS, and GAO to testify at the Sept. 29th hearing. Because of the importance of the testimony, the GAO is sending Assistant Comptroller General Victor S. Rezendes to testify before the Subcommittee.