Mr. BARBER. I thank the gentleman.
First of all, I want to thank Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Lowey, Mr. Young, and Mr. Visclosky for taking up this critical legislation and for moving it so quickly to the floor.
Mr. Speaker, over the weekend, our Nation lost five patriots in Afghanistan. We need to remember who they were:
First Lieutenant Jennifer Moreno, U.S. Army;
Sergeant Joseph Peters, U.S. Army;
Sergeant Patrick Hawkins, U.S. Army;
Private First Class Cody Patterson, U.S. Army;
Lance Corporal Jeremiah Collins, U.S. Marine Corps.
Thirty-six hours after they were killed, their families were notified that our government would not pay death benefits because of the government shutdown.
When I heard about this yesterday morning, I simply could not believe it was true. I asked my staff to look into the matter and find out if it could possibly be true. Unfortunately, they confirmed that indeed we had denied these benefits. We took immediate action, and along with a bipartisan group of Members representing the districts where these fallen heroes lived, we moved forward and introduced this legislation.
As has been said, the bill will provide funding to pay survivor benefits and cover the funeral costs for these military families and all servicemembers who may give the ultimate sacrifice during this shutdown of our government services.
God forbid that any other family should be put in this situation again. It is absolutely abhorrent that we would leave our military families without assistance when they are at their most vulnerable time of trying to deal with their loss and grief.
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Mr. BARBER. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Speaker, I just want to say the denial of this benefit is absolutely outrageous, and it is a disgrace. We've broken our fundamental promise to fallen heroes, and we must fix it. This bill will do just that.
We must also ensure that it never happens again. That's why, later today, I will be introducing a bill that makes sure we never forsake our fallen servicemembers or any member of our uniformed services ever again under these circumstances.
I am very pleased that we came together today in a bipartisan fashion. I thank my colleagues for coming together and for putting their differences aside in order to honor these commitments to those who have fallen and in order to take care of their families in this time of need. I hope we will see a unanimous vote in approving this bill.
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