Legislation Would Increase Death Benefits

The HEROES Act of 2005, co-sponsored by Senators Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., and Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., would raise the death benefits for service members killed in combat from $12,420 to $100,000. The death gratuity would be retroactive to cover those killed while deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. The bill also would increase the Servicemen’s Group Life Insurance maximum benefit to $400,000 from $250,000. In the House, Reps. Dennis Moore, D-Kan., and Spencer Bachus, R- Ala., have introduced a companion bill that would be applied retroactively to all service men and women who have died on active duty since September 11, 2001. Meanwhile President Bush has included a similar increase in his budget proposal.