Republicans ask for an update on Havana syndrome treatment

Republican leaders on the House Homeland Security Committee want to know what the Biden administration is doing about Havana syndrome, mysterious brain injuries that became public in 2016 after State Department officials in Cuba’s capital city were affected. 

“We are deeply alarmed that these incidents continue to take place here and abroad, and that there has been little to no explanation from the administration as to who or what has caused these phenomena,” wrote full committee Chairman Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., and Counterterrorism, Law Enforcement and Intelligence Subcommittee Chairman August Pfluger, R-Texas, in a letter to National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan Tuesday. 

The brain injuries, referred to as anomalous health incidents, include symptoms of headaches, pain, nausea, disequilibrium and hearing loss. Additional reports of similar symptoms later emerged from federal employees in other countries such as China, Russia, Vietnam, Colombia and various parts of Europe. 

Green and Pfluger, who have held numerous hearings and briefings on this matter, requested a committee briefing from the National Security Council. They also urged the administration to prioritize expending unused funds allocated to provide care for AHI victims and to fully implement the HAVANA Act, a 2021 law that authorizes payments to impacted intelligence, diplomatic and other governmental personnel.  

The Justice Department in April published an interim final rule outlining benefits under the HAVANA Act for its affected employees; the State Department finalized its regulation in 2023.

Mark S. Zaid, who has represented several AHI patient victims, in May testimony before the Homeland Security subcommittee criticized the law for allowing agencies to set different standards for such payments. 

“Why should there be a difference between a CIA victim or one who was serving the State Department?” he said. “There are also existing obstacles for active duty military victims to receive any compensation, although no DOD victim can currently receive an award because the department has not even issued regulations that would allow its victims to apply.”

A provision in the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act required the Defense Department to provide treatment to federal employees and members of their families experiencing AHIs. The 2023 NDAA extended such a requirement to former federal employees. 

However a July Government Accountability Office report found that many AHI patients experienced challenges accessing the military health system, including limited information, unclear points of contact and difficulty scheduling appointments. 

“By providing medical care to current and former federal employees and their family members affected by AHIs, DOD has made a substantial difference in some patients’ lives,” investigators wrote. “Nevertheless, DOD is offering treatment for a poorly understood condition with unknown causes to a group of civilian beneficiaries with which the MHS has rarely dealt.” 

GAO recommended that the Defense Health Agency establish a mechanism to systematically provide official information to AHI patients and add monitoring components to its plan of action to care for such patients. DOD concurred with the recommendations. 

The report found that there are 334 AHI patients, as of January 2024, who qualified for military health care. 

A five-year National Institutes of Health study released in March “found no significant evidence of MRI-detectable brain injury, nor differences in most clinical measures compared to controls, among a group of federal employees who experienced AHIs.” But a lead scientist for the study emphasized that “these symptoms are very real, cause significant disruption in the lives of those affected and can be quite prolonged, disabling and difficult to treat.”