Mitch Landrieu: “the focus and purpose of this amendment is very simple, it is easy to understand, and it is quite clear. In the 5…”

“the focus and purpose of this amendment is very simple, it is easy to understand, and it is quite clear. In the 5 minutes I have, I will try to lay out that purpose, its cost, and the reasons it is very important for this Senate to act affirmatively on this amendment. My amendment will fix and make clear that the Survivor Benefit Plan offered in 1972 to our men and women in uniform, of which they pay more than 80 percent of this benefit for themselves, so it is modestly subsidized by the taxpayer, my amendment will make it clear that the survivors of our veterans--in most cases they are women but, obviously, not in every case--at the age of 62 will be able to retain what they thought they signed up for, which is 55 percent of the benefit, instead of what is occurring today, which is cutting that benefit down to 33 percent. There are all sorts of reasons people will hold out as to why this is happening, but it is clear it needs to be fixed. It is also clear there is plenty of money in this bill to fix it. We are going to spend over $400 billion this year on the Defense bill. This amendment will only cost about $400 million a year to fix. Somewhere in this bill of hundreds of billions of dollars, I am certain we can find the $400 million to live up to a promise made to our military men and women and to give them the benefit of which actually they are paying 80 percent. This is not a taxpayer giveaway; this is honoring a commitment made when we set up a program.”