Helping American Victims Afflicted By Neurological Attacks Act of 2021

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, around the world, America and American personnel are being attacked in their homes, in hotels, and even on public streets. For most, it starts with what seems like a loud noise that is followed by pain or a sense of pressure in the head. Many are left with chronic damage, including hearing loss, vertigo, cognitive and motor impairment, severe headaches, and inability to sleep.

In the words of a recent press report, our diplomats are suffering a ``concussion without a concussion.''

The Senate-passed bill before us today provides important authority to assist these brain injury victims, and it deserves our unanimous support. But we all must do more.

Unfortunately, these attacks have continued and spread. First, it started in Havana in late 2016 and spread to China in 2017. Two months ago, press reports described more than 130 possible cases all over the world, including right here in Washington, D.C. Just last week, two dozen new cases among U.S. personnel in Vienna were revealed. Simply put, this is kind of scary stuff.

The people who serve our Nation overseas are generally worried for themselves and their families, and they need to know that we have their backs. When the prior administration pulled our personnel out of Havana 4 years ago, they said: ``Numerous Embassy Havana employees have been targeted in specific attacks. These employees have suffered significant injuries as a consequence of these attacks.''

In contrast, President Biden has refused to call these what they are, attacks on U.S. personnel. Secretary of State Tony Blinken publicly said perhaps no one is responsible for causing these injuries.

I will tell you, from my briefings and briefings in another annex, that is absolutely incorrect. We may not be able to fill in all the blanks yet, but we know too much to dismiss these attacks as unexplained health incidents.

Four years ago, medical experts convened by the State Department agreed victims were likely dealing with brain trauma from a nonnatural source, and the evidence has only grown more conclusive since then. Last year, the National Academy of Sciences said that directed, pulsed radio frequency energy is most likely the cause. According to the NAS, the situation raises grave concerns about bad actors who may have weapons.

While we must assist victims with today's bill, we must do more. We must call these heinous attacks what they are. They are attacks, and the people attacking us need to know the consequences will be severe when we find out who they are and when we get the attribution. Otherwise, we aren't doing what we can do to deter future attacks. The men and women who serve our Nation overseas deserve no less.

I have prepared a bill to do just that, which I will be introducing this week.

I thank Chairman Meeks and our Intelligence Committee colleagues for their bipartisan work on the HAVANA Act, which I strongly support.

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Mr. McCAUL.

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Mr. McCAUL. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.

First, I thank the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the ranking member, Mr. Nunes, for their strong support of this bill. It is very important.

I will be introducing a bill next week on this, and I hope to work with the House Intelligence Committee on that as well.

I am very concerned the administration may be planning to send U.S. personnel back to our Havana Embassy. I just got off of a big rally across the street from the White House with a lot of Cubans. They are searching for freedom and democracy over tyranny, oppression, and communism.

But our personnel, we can't send them back until we can say who or what caused these brain injuries that prompted the Trump administration to pull our people out of there for their own safety in 2017.

Over these last few weeks, the world has watched Cuba's brutal police state in action. The Venezuelan military is there as well, silencing people just for exercising freedom of speech, which they don't have under a communist dictatorship.

The same surveillance system that tracks dissidents and censors the internet has been unwilling to share necessary information about these attacks against Americans. I have no doubt that Cuban intelligence is involved in this.

If the administration sends U.S. personnel back to Havana without holding the regime accountable, all American diplomats are at risk.

Again, I support this bipartisan HAVANA Act. I urge my colleagues to support it as well. I think these men and women, both State Department diplomats and our intelligence officers, deserve better from our Nation. They need to receive the proper care that they deserve.

Again, I thank Chairman Meeks and the Intelligence Committee, and I look forward to its passage.

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