BUDGET/MILITARY/POLITICS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “The first two military families who will not receive death benefits because of the government shutdown have been named.
1st Lt. Clayton R. Cullen, of Indiana, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 (CW2) Kevin F. Burke, of California, who were both assigned to the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, were killed on Saturday when their Apache helicopter crashed in a training accident at Fort Irwin, California.
‘Under a government shutdown, the Department of Defense has no authority to pay death benefits to these families,’ chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White told CNN on Sunday. A US defense official confirmed to CNN that the families of the Fort Irwin crash will not receive the emergency $100,000 death benefit.
As well as the payment, the benefits include funeral and burial reimbursements. It also includes a gratuity for travel to funeral or memorial services — or to Dover Air Force Base, where the bodies of troops who die overseas are typically sent…
The cause of Saturday’s crash is under investigation.”
-Barbara Starr and Zachary Cohen, “Mourning military families won’t get government death benefits,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, Jan. 22, 2018 12:23pm