Two senators warned Secretary of War Pete Hegseth not to let the Pentagon "reorganize" its way into sidelining the team charged with investigating "anomalous health incidents" — widely known as Havana syndrome.
They said that the reported move could weaken care for affected personnel and slow the search for answers.
In a letter sent Monday, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, raised concerns about reported plans inside the Department of War to relocate the cross-functional team that coordinates the department's response to AHI.
The Washington Examiner reported that Pentagon officials were considering moving the team from the undersecretary for policy to the undersecretary for research and engineering.
While the change has reportedly been described internally as a bureaucratic reshuffle, the senators warned it could effectively sideline the team and reduce its ability to support victims and pursue attribution and technology-related research.
"We owe it to these personnel to continue to receive care while ongoing research is done on attribution and technology, which can only be done by the CFT [the cross-functional team] in its current form," the senators wrote.
Newsmax reached out to the Pentagon for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
AHI refers to a suite of unexplained neurological symptoms first reported by U.S. personnel in Havana, Cuba, beginning in 2016 and later elsewhere.
Reported symptoms include intense headaches, dizziness and vertigo, ringing in the ears, nausea, vision problems, and debilitating cognitive effects, according to multiple investigations.
There have been more than 1,500 reports of the condition over the past decade. An unclassified Government Accountability Office report previously identified 334 U.S. government personnel who sought care for AHI through the military health system as of 2024.
A senior congressional official, granted anonymity by CBS News, said additional cases were reported during the first year of the second Trump administration but declined to provide further details due to classification concerns.
The same official said the team "has been a very important resource to the people in this cohort," describing it as a "central repository" for victims to access care, navigate compensation claims through Havana Act legislation, discuss research into directed energy weapons, or have a place where their symptoms are taken seriously.
"Disbanding a carefully curated team of experts with decades of experience reeks of either incompetence or a cover-up," former CIA operations officer "Adam," who served in Havana, told CBS.
"If Secretary Hegseth knew what this would mean for the war fighter that he so adamantly wants to protect and care for, there's no way he would sign off."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.