Death benefit. Senators voted, 75-25, to keep a measure raising the military death benefit from $12,420 to $100,000 and
applying it to all deaths during active duty, not just those from combat. The higher figure was added to HR 1268. A
yes vote opposed the raise. Voting yes: Santorum.
Senate OKs Compensation for Guard, Reserve
The Senate on Wednesday agreed to make sure that federal employees serving in the National Guard and Reserve don't lose
pay when they are activated.
It also agreed to expand benefits for the families of soldiers killed, regardless of whether the deaths occurred in combat.
The measures were added to an $80.6 billion emergency spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other
costs. They are among a series of Democratic amendments that have been politically awkward for Republicans who are eager to
show support for troops, but also looking to contain costs.
On Tuesday, Republicans defeated a proposal to add $2 billion for
veterans health care. But on Wednesday, several members of the GOP majority voted to go along with [the following] Democratic proposals.
The amendment to make up the salary difference for federal employees activated for National Guard or Reserve duty was
approved in a voice vote after a Republican attempt to derail it failed, 61-39.
Its prospects of becoming law are uncertain. The Senate bill will have to be reconciled with a $81.4 billion version
of the bill the House approved last month. In recent years, House-Senate negotiators have quietly stripped similar provisions
from other legislation, said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the amendment's sponsor.
Durbin said about 120,000 U.S. government employees serve in the Guard or Reserve and, when activated, they lose an average
of $368 a month, the difference between their civilian and military pay. He said pay issues are a main reason members of the
Guard and Reserve don't re-enlist...
Durbin's office said making up the pay difference would cost about $170 million over five years.
For soldiers who die in combat zones, the Bush administration proposed an increase in death benefits. Sen. John Kerry,
D-Mass., won a voice vote to extend those higher benefits to include soldiers whose deaths are not combat-related.
"You can be driving a car and have a car accident in a combat zone and you qualify for that upper level (death benefit),"
Kerry said of the administration's proposal. "But if you're serving on an aircraft carrier or elsewhere and you're training
personnel and you die ... you don't get the same benefit, even if you're preparing to send troops to war."
A Republican effort to set Kerry's amendment aside was defeated, 75-25.
Stevens argued that "fallen heroes" should be entitled to higher death benefits than a service member who dies in a drunken
driving accident in the United States.
Republicans also agreed in a voice vote to a Kerry proposal to let the families of soldiers killed in action stay in
military housing for up to a year, instead of the current 180 days.
The Senate bill would give Bush most of the money he sought for fighting wars, though the total is less than the $82
billion he requested. Republican Senate leaders hope for passage by next week and have been trying to avert lengthy debates
on immigration and border security amendments that could delay the bill.
In other votes, the Senate:
-Rejected, 71-27, a proposal by Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., to strip from the bill $36 million for a permanent prison
at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, site where terror suspects are held.
-Restored, by voice vote, the full $250 million the administration sought to construct a building and provide staff for
the new director of national intelligence.
The Senate Appropriations Committee had cut the funding to $89 million.
The bill number is H.R. 1268.
By Ken Guggenheim, The Associated Press, Washington Post, Apr 13, 2005
