WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs has canceled a $75 million, five-year research contract with a Texas medical center studying illnesses suffered by veterans of the first Gulf War.

The VA says research on the illnesses, however, remains a priority.
Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka, a Democrat from Hawaii, has been pushing to end the sole-source contract with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
Money for the contract was added to a 2005 spending bill by Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas when the GOP had the majority in Congress.
Troops returned from the first Persian Gulf War with chronic illnesses ranging from fatigue to Lou Gehrig’s disease. Some have questioned whether soldiers’ illnesses resulted from battle stress or exposures to toxic substances.