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WASHINGTON, May 2, 1997 – Former U.S. Sen. Warren Rudman was appointed a special adviser on Gulf War illness issues May 1 by Secretary of Defense William Cohen.
A Korean War veteran, Rudman is perhaps best known for co-authoring the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act to balance the federal budget. As a senator from New Hampshire, Rudman served on the Senate Intelligence Committee. He is vice chairman of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board and a partner in the Washington law offices of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison. Rudman will review the findings of the DoD Office of the Special Assistant on Gulf War Illnesses, headed by Bernard Rostker. In a letter welcoming Rudman to his staff, Cohen said he believes an outside review will help accomplish a thorough investigation of illness issues. He also asked Rudman to measure cooperation between DoD and the U.S. intelligence community and "suggest ways to improve provision, handling and use of intelligence information during battle." In welcoming Rudman, Cohen took the opportunity to laud Rostker and his staff. "I believe Dr. Rostker and his team are making steady and significant progress in their efforts to reconstruct events and to understand the factors that may have harmed the health of Gulf War veterans," Cohen said. The secretary said he and Rostker share President Clinton's commitment to "do everything we can to understand what happened to veterans, to provide the best possible care and compensation to those who are ill, and to learn all we can from the Gulf War to reduce hazards of future military deployments."
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