{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415206", "Asbury Park Press article on Smith Lyme disease amendment'Is Lyme disease a military accident? New probe inspired by late Wall woman'", "2025-12-22", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Jerry Carino\n\nPublished December 22, 2025 at 5:05 AM\n\nAfter nearly a decade of trying, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., has gotten the green light for a federal investigation into whether the military weaponized ticks with Lyme disease as part of a Cold War experiment gone awry \u2014 furthering the spread and intensity of the illness, which has hit New Jerseyans particularly hard.\n\nSmith\u2019s Lyme disease amendment, attached to the $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 that was signed into law by President Donald Trump Dec. 18, directs the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office to produce a report on the matter.\n\nThe amendment flew under the media radar, but longtime Wall resident Rich Smith took notice. It\u2019s another chapter in the legacy of his late wife, Pat Smith, who was one of the nation\u2019s leading advocates for Lyme disease patients \u2014 in particular those who suffered from chronic or long-term Lyme. Pat Smith died in 2024 at age 78.\n\n\u201cI think she would think it\u2019s way past due and a very positive step in tracing the history of Lyme \u2014 one more step in the process of beating back this disease,\u201d Rich Smith told the Asbury Park Press.\n\n\u201cShe\u2019s smiling from above,\u201d Chris Smith said. \u201cShe\u2019s the pioneer.\u201d\n\nU.S. Rep. Chris Smith R-N.J., is shown with Pat Smith, Lyme Disease Association President, before a panel discussion about Lyme disease held at the Wall Township Municipal building Wednesday, May 29, 2019. Thomas P. Costello/Asbury Park Press\n\nThe challenge for Lyme patients\n\nIn the 1980s, Lyme disease afflicted two of Pat and Rich Smith\u2019s daughters, one of whom missed four years of school. Pat founded the nonprofit Lyme Disease Association and traveled the country to raise awareness.\n\n\u201cShe\u2019s the one who got me into Lyme,\u201d Chris Smith said. \u201cShe came to a town meeting in Wall in 1992 and said, \u2018What are you doing about Lyme disease?\u2019 I said \u2018Nothing.\u2019 We had lunch, and I\u2019ve been working on it ever since.\u201d\n\nLyme disease affects nearly 500,000 people a year in the U.S., and New Jersey has the second-most diagnosed cases after Pennsylvania, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). For many who are diagnosed promptly, the standard month-long course of antibiotics mitigates the illness. But detection is difficult and, for thousands of folks, the symptoms can continue for months or years. For these long-term sufferers, there has been little in the way of established treatment.\n\nTicks, usually found in brush-filled, grassy areas, can be hosts to diseases such as Lyme disease and anaplasmosis to people. Not all ticks are easily seen. This one is just a little larger than the letters on a penny. Graham Hickling/University of Tennessee\n\nPat Smith\u2019s partnership with Chris Smith on the issue led to several laws funding Lyme research, and Pat Smith became part of a 14-person congressional working group on changes to federal Lyme disease policy.\n\nOne thing that eluded them was probing the belief that Lyme\u2019s explosion in the latter decades of the 20th century had military origins. Two prior amendments to that effect by Chris Smith passed the House of Representatives but failed in the Senate in 2017 and 2019. The theory gained steam in 2019 with the publishing of the book \u201cBitten: The Secret History of Lyme Disease and Biological Weapons\u201d by Stanford University-based science writer and chronic Lyme sufferer Kris Newby.\n\n\u201cWith this new GAO report, we will have both a public report and where necessary, one that is confidential and that hopefully will allow unfettered access to the files about what we (the U.S. Department of Defense) were doing,\u201d Chris Smith said. \u201cIf it\u2019s not an issue, the investigation will prove that and we\u2019ll turn the page.\u201d\n\n'Quite a testament'\n\nSpecifically, Chris Smith\u2019s amendment compels the Comptroller General of the United States to review research conducted by the military, the National Institutes of Health, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies between the period of Jan. 1, 1945 and Dec. 31, 1972, regarding experiments involving Spirochaetales and Rickettsiales \u2014 two forms of tick-borne bacteria.\n\nThe idea behind the investigation, Chris Smith said, is that \u201can enhanced understanding of how Lyme came to be will only assist in finding a cure for this debilitating disease.\u201d\n\nRich Smith said the amendment\u2019s passage is \u201cquite a testament\u201d to his wife\u2019s legacy.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415206"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.2712950594723225, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}