WASHINGTON (AP) — Death benefits would be increased for survivors of service members killed in a string of recent disasters under a bill approved Tuesday by the House.
The provision, part of a broad veterans' benefits package, passed on a 417-0 vote. It makes retroactive to Oct. 1 an increase that had been scheduled to take effect April 1. Under the measure, which still must be taken up in the Senate, maximum death benefits rise by $50,000, to $250,000.
The aim of the retroactive provision is to cover families such as relatives of the USS Cole victims, who were killed during an Oct. 12 terrorist bombing in Yemen.
Also eligible would be the families of the victims of the March 3 crash of a cargo plane in Georgia in which 18 members of the Virginia Air National Guard and three Army crewmen were killed.