WASHINGTON—Representative Eliot L. Engel, Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and a former Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, today made the following statement on an Associated Press report on the medical impact of alleged attacks against personnel serving at the U.S. embassy in Havana, Cuba:

“I was extremely disturbed to read the AP report this morning stating that the alleged attacks on personnel serving at the U.S. embassy in Cuba led to perceptible changes in individuals’ brains. This is precisely why I wrote to the Directors of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with Chairman Ed Royce to ask them to take a leading role in investigating the cause and impact of these health incidents. The affected individuals and all Americans serving abroad deserve nothing less than a thorough scientific evaluation by our nation’s top health experts. I was also disappointed to once again read about the latest developments in the press rather than being briefed by the State Department. The Trump Administration has consistently failed to carry out its duty to brief Congress on these troubling events.”

The letter sent yesterday by Ranking Member Engel and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce to the CDC and NIH directors can be found here.

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