''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," David Chu, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, said.
''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."
Chu is set to unveil the administration's full proposal in congressional testimony today.
Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama who is sponsoring a bill with the same provisions, said the first-year budget 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 settlements.
''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.
In addition to the higher gratuity, the Pentagon would substantially increase life insurance benefits, 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.
Even in the case of a service member who did not participate in the basic life insurance program, the surviving spouse would receive a $150,000 settlement if the death happened in a designated combat zone, since 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 get the $100,000 gratuity.
Chu 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.
Some bills in Congress would make the higher gratuity retroactive but not the extra life insurance. Under the administration's proposal, the 53 military members who were killed in the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon would not get the higher gratuity, a spokeswoman said.
