[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 181 (Tuesday, November 29, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S7940]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    CLARIFYING CONGRESSIONAL INTENT

  Mr. PRYOR. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to talk about CPT 
Samson Luke, 33 years old, who lived in Greenwood, AR.
  Captain Luke was one of those people who had many options in life. 
Fortunately for us, he made the decision to serve his country, and he 
did so with distinction. He was a field artillery officer who served on 
active duty in the Army from 2000 to 2007. Afterwards, he served in the 
Arkansas National Guard where he was a commander of the HHB 1-142nd 
field artillery. Here is a photo of him with his family. His family was 
very important to him.
  He had been to Iraq on two different deployments, after which he was 
awarded the Bronze Star. As I said, he elected to stay on with the 
Arkansas National Guard. He served with distinction there. He told his 
wife, who is pictured here, that he felt he was truly at his best when 
he was leading men.
  I want to talk about him for a moment because, quite frankly, the 
bean counters over at the Pentagon are trying to save a little money at 
his family's expense. So I want to talk about his passing away on 
January 10 of 2010--less than a year ago. It was a weekend where he was 
doing his required training weekend. He was authorized, because he 
lived so close to the post, to spend Saturday night with his wife and 
his four young children at his home instead of staying on the post. In 
fact, he wasn't authorized to stay on the post because he was so close 
to home. He had to be off post. The idea was he would return to the 
post the next morning and finish up his weekend on that Sunday, but he 
never woke up. While dealing with this tragedy, his wife was informed 
that her family would not receive his death benefits. From my 
standpoint, this is a classic case of getting pencil whipped by the 
government.
  The Arkansas National Guard has stepped up. They have done everything 
they could do. They have run it through all the proper channels. They 
have been very supportive of making sure that Captain Luke's family 
gets his death benefits. I feel as though--and people in the Guard do 
as well--that they are entitled to have the death benefits, but it is 
out of their hands. The law states that death benefits are allocated if 
a soldier dies while remaining overnight at or ``in the vicinity of the 
site of the inactive duty training.''
  What I want to do with my amendment I am offering through the Defense 
authorization bill is clarify Congress's intent and make sure that the 
very tiny number of people who are in his shoes and his family will be 
entitled to these death benefits.
  I spent a year working on this issue with the Army and with the 
Department of Defense and, again, the Arkansas National Guard has 
stepped up and they have been great, but we are at a standstill over 
the DOD's interpretation of ``vicinity.''
  This is an important point that I want my colleagues to understand: 
Had Captain Luke stayed on base or had he stayed at a hotel at the 
taxpayers' expense or had he been traveling to or from his post--his 
training--the family would receive these benefits. In fact, the Guard 
has a policy that if a guardsman lives within so many miles of the 
post, he or she cannot stay on the post, they have to go home. They 
don't have arrangements for a person to stay there. They want the 
person to go home. This saves the government money by not putting 
people up in a hotel or whatever else they may have to do. When a 
person is on a National Guard training weekend, as Captain Luke was, 
that person is under orders for 48 continuous hours. Wherever they are 
sleeping, wherever they are traveling, whatever they are doing, they 
are on orders; they are on duty.
  Captain Luke was on duty when he died. In fact, if his colonel had 
called him at 1 o'clock in the morning and said get over here, we need 
your help on something, he would have had to go over there. He was on 
duty. He was on orders. He would have done that. In fact, he would have 
gladly stayed on the post had they had provisions for him to do that, 
but it worked out in this case that he was able, because he lived so 
close, to stay with his wife and family.
  Also, let me say this: Had he been on orders and gotten out--which, 
of course, would never have happened to him--but had a soldier like him 
gotten out and had he done something such as had a DUI that night, that 
soldier would have been subject to the code of military justice because 
he was on orders. But, nonetheless, Captain Luke died when he was on 
orders, and now the Pentagon is trying to deny him his death benefits.
  What my amendment does is clarify congressional intent to ensure that 
servicemembers who live in the area or in the vicinity of their 
training site can return home to their families in the evening without 
losing benefits. Again, they are on orders; they remain on orders. This 
doesn't change anything along those lines; it just clarifies 
congressional intent. This is a gray area. We are trying to clarify the 
congressional intent.
  This amendment will not bring back the Luke children's father and 
their mother's husband, but it will give them the benefits to which 
they are entitled.
  I think we can do better for our soldiers' families. When we look at 
Miranda, Miller, Macklin, Larkin, and Landis Luke in this photograph, 
we know that this is a very patriotic family and this is a group of 
people who should be compensated for his loss.
  Abraham Lincoln once said: ``To care for him who shall have borne the 
battle and for his widow, and his orphan,'' and those words apply in 
this instance. Captain Luke was serving his country to the fullest and 
his family should be granted the benefits associated with the death of 
a servicemember.
  I am fighting on behalf of Captain Luke and his family and for others 
in a similarly situated circumstance to clarify that when a person is 
on orders when they are doing their National Guard training, they are 
entitled to death benefits wherever they happen to be laying their head 
at that particular time.
  One last word on this. We don't know exactly how much this will cost, 
but it will not be very much money.
  Someone estimated--I do not think it is an official CBO score, but 
someone estimated it would probably cost $1 million--that is with an 
``m''--over 10 years. This is budget dust. This is so small, it is 
almost laughable, but it is so meaningful to this family and maybe 
others who in the future will find themselves in this situation.
  So I would like to ask my colleagues to consider supporting the Pryor 
amendment. That is amendment No. 1151. I would love to work with the 
bill managers to see if we might get it into a managers' package and/
or, if we have to, request a rollcall vote.
  With that, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. JOHANNS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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