Mark Warner: “In the provisions of this bill, the committee has gone as far as the Congress should on this issue. I believe the…”

“In the provisions of this bill, the committee has gone as far as the Congress should on this issue. I believe the committee and the Department of Defense have agreed on a course of action that will improve current procedures without imposing a new and cumbersome bureaucracy on the Department, the Services, and commanders in the field. However, the report language accompanying the bill does not accurately reflect the intention of the bill language in one key aspect. The recommended provision would not prohibit the Department of Defense from declaring a serviceman dead when there are obvious indications that he is indeed dead, including the passage of time.”