The Senate voted Thursday to increase funds for research and treatment of traumatic brain injuries, which has become a much more prevalent injury in operations in Afghanistan and Iraq than it was in previous wars. Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) and Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) introduced a bipartisan amendment to the Fiscal 2007 defense appropriations bill that would give an additional $12 million to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center. (Allen statement and Durbin statement.) The Administration had only requested $7 million, half of what the center got in 2006. The issue still has to be resolved in conference, since the House version of the bill does not contain a similar boost.
The U.S. began extensive air and artillery strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria on Dec. 19 in retaliation for the killing of three Americans on Dec. 13 by a gunman affiliated with ISIS, U.S. officials said.
