Brain injury budget faces cut, Military research, treatment at risk [View All]

[Rose Siding]

Brain injuries are so common among U.S. troops that they're called the signature injury of the Iraq war, but Congress is poised to cut military spending on researching and treating them.

House and Senate versions of the defense appropriation bill would chop funding for the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center from $14 million to $7 million. The center runs 10 facilities across the country, including one at Fort Bragg that has performed research and treated soldiers' injuries since 1998.

"It's just ridiculous," said Sgt. Maj. Colin Rich, a Fort Bragg soldier who has been legally blind since he was shot in the head while serving in Afghanistan in 2002. "Whoever is cutting the budget must have a head injury themselves."

"With the bombs, the gunshot wounds and everything else, their plate is full," he said. "They need that money."
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The brain injury center's headquarters are at Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington. Its leaders had sought $19 million for the coming year, citing the growing number of patients, the cost of long-term care and the need for research to improve treatment and prevention.

http://www.newsobserver.com/110/story/480210.html