Democrats criticize proposed benefits

WASHINGTON -- Democrats argued Tuesday that President Bush's proposal to boost government payments to families of U.S. troops killed in Iraq, Afghanistan and future war zones should extend to all military personnel who die on active duty.\nSen. Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, said that although he agreed with Bush's plan to give those families an extra $250,000, the money also should "apply to all service members on active duty" who die and not just those who die in Pentagon-designated combat zones.\nOfficials with the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines told the committee that the Defense Department should not give benefits to surviving spouses and children based simply on the geography of a death.\n"They can't make a distinction. I don't think we should either," said Adm. John B. Nathman, vice chief of naval operations for the Navy. \nGen. T. Michael Moseley, the Air Force's vice chief of staff agreed.\n"I believe a death is a death, and I believe this should be treated that way," he said \nUnder questioning from Levin, David Chu, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said the administration would work with Congress to determine the exact objective of the increased benefits. Right now, "our premiere objective is to those fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.\nThe proposal, the subject of the panel's hearing, includes retroactive payments to the spouses or surviving relatives of the more than 1,500 who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan since October 2001. It will be in the fiscal 2006 budget proposal that Bush submits to Congress next week, a Pentagon official said.\nA tax-free "death gratuity," now $12,420, would grow to $100,000. The government also would pay for $150,000 in life insurance for troops. Veterans groups and many in Congress have been pushing for such increases.\n"We think the nation ought to make a larger one-time payment, quite apart from insurance, should you be killed in a combat area of operations," Chu told The Associated Press in an interview in his office.\n"We can never in any program give someone back their loved one," he added. "There is nothing we can do about the hurt to make it go away. But we can make your circumstances reasonable in terms of finances."\nSen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who is sponsoring a bill with the same provisions, said in an interview Monday that the first-year cost of the increased benefits would be $459 million, including more than $280 million in retroactive payments of the higher gratuity and the extra life insurance payouts.\n"The American people want to be generous to the families of service people who give their lives for their country. It's not a nickel-and-dime issue," he said.\nThe Pentagon would increase life insurance benefits substantially, Chu said. The current $250,000 coverage offered to all service members at a subsidized rate under the Servicemen's Group Life Insurance program would be raised to $400,000, and for troops in a combat zone, the government would pay the premiums on the extra $150,000 coverage.\nThe surviving spouse would receive a $150,000 settlement if the death happened in a designated combat zone because the Pentagon is proposing to pay the premiums on that amount of coverage for everyone in a war zone. The spouse or other surviving family member also would receive the $100,000 gratuity.\nChu said the extra $150,000 in life insurance and the higher death gratuity would be retroactive to Oct. 7, 2001, the date the United States launched its invasion of Afghanistan in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.