Bill Nelson: “it is an honor for me, on behalf of some folks who have not been treated with fairness and equity, to rise on the floor…”

“it is an honor for me, on behalf of some folks who have not been treated with fairness and equity, to rise on the floor of the Senate to try to obtain it for them. There will be attempts to strip this amendment from the bill. But I offer it tonight, whether or not cloture is invoked on the overall bill, with the hope that we are going to get an up-or-down vote. It is important that widows and orphans in this country, whose husbands and fathers died as a result of their military service, can know where the Senators stand on this important issue. It is an honor for me to offer this amendment, and it is going to correct two important inequities faced by our military widows and our military retirees. There is an unfair and painful offset of the Defense Department's Survivors Benefits Plan, offset against the Veterans Affairs Dependency and Indemnity Compensation. What is Survivors Benefit Plan? When servicemembers die on active duty, their survivors receive a benefit to recognize their sacrifice. You also have 100-percent disabled military retirees who actually go out and purchase this survivors benefit so their loved ones will have this when they have passed on. Yet that survivor benefit is today being taken away unfairly from our military widows and orphans. Fixing that is what my amendment is all about. If you go back into the Good Book, you will find that one of the main things that we are admonished is to look out for the widows and orphans.…”