Department of Veterans Affairs February 28, 2014 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Secretary of Veterans Affairs (VA) established the Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Task Force (GWVI-TF) in August 2009 to focus on full spectrum health care and benefits issues faced by Veterans of the 1990-1991 Gulf War (Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm). The GWVI-TF published its first annual report in September 2010. The GWVI-TF posted a draft of its 2012-13 report for public comment on May 14, 2013. VA published the report in the Federal Register (78 FR 28292) and posted it on a social media Web site created specifically to elicit responses on the report. VA collected comments through both venues. During the thirty day comment period, VA received 41 comments submitted through the Federal Register venue and over 180 comments through the social media Web site. VA sincerely thanks all those who took the time to submit comments. VA has completed its 2012-13 Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses Task Force Report. The GWVI-TF reviewed all the comments submitted, and addressed in this report those comments that were directly responsive to the draft report. Comments specifically addressed in this report are annotated accordingly. The comments that were not directly responsive to the draft report will serve as guidance for the VA to consider as it moves forward. Finally, there were a number of individual requests for assistance. Those that contained sufficient specific information were referred to appropriate VA offices for action. Those that were not specific enough or were anonymously submitted will serve as background for consideration on areas for the VA to study in the future.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501-21), this notice announces that the National Cemetery Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs, will submit the collection of information abstracted below to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review and comment. The PRA submission describes the nature of the information collection and its expected cost and burden and includes the actual data collection instrument.