White House: Obama orders military death benefits paid to families

President Obama has ordered officials to resume paying death benefits to the families of fallen soldiers and was “very disturbed” they had been halted due to the government shutdown, said White House spokesman Jay Carney. 

{mosads}Carney said Obama had ordered the Office of Management and Budget to work with White House lawyers to find a way to restart the benefits and expects a fix Wednesday. 

“He was not pleased to learn of this problem,” Carney said, adding it was “unthinkable” that those who had lost family members would go without benefits.

The White House said that Congress was warned that death benefits would be halted in a government shutdown and said the “Pay Our Military Act” passed late last month, which authorized paying the salary of service members, did not “explicitly” address the issue.

Republicans have said the administration should have interpreted the law to allow the benefits.

Separately, the House has taken up legislation to explicitly allow the Pentagon to make payments of $100,000 to the survivors of troops who are killed.

In an earlier letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) accused the Pentagon of a “careless legal interpretation” to deny benefits.

“The Department of Defense, through a careless legal interpretation, is now mistakenly denying payments of Death Gratuity and other benefits to the families of those who make the ultimate sacrifice,” Hunter wrote.

At the White House, Carney said “none of this would be an issue if the government was open,” blaming the Republicans for the shutdown.