Hubbard Act
Floor Speech
HUBBARD ACT -- (Senate - August 01, 2008)
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise in support of the Hubbard Act.
This important legislation helps our service men and women in uniform who are the ``sole survivor''--only surviving child in a family in which one of their family members has died or been killed due to their military service. Under the current ``sole survivor'' policy of the Armed Forces, there are no standard benefits available to those who separate from the Armed Forces under this policy.
The legislation corrects a flaw, allowing sole survivors to qualify for a standard set of Federal benefits that are generally available to other veterans.
I would like to comment on the bill's other provision. Section 9 would repeal the dollar limitations on contributions to funeral trusts. In the Senate, this provision was authored by the Senator from Utah, Mr. Hatch. It has been included to offset the additional spending associated with the bill's sole survivor provisions.
As I have consistently said in the past, the Senate Finance Committee is not a piggy bank for the other committees to dip into to pay for their new spending proposals. My preference would have been to have the sole survivor provisions in this legislation funded by spending reductions by the committees of jurisdiction.
I have been told that option was not available for this bill.
The funeral trust provision under Section 9, is a taxpayer favorable provision. It is a purely voluntary provision. It helps people who want to put more money aside in trust to provide for their funeral.
Unlike prior revenue raisers proposed by the majority that would impose tax increases on unsuspecting Americans, this revenue offset is strongly supported by those who would pay the additional tax.
As I said previously, my strong preference would be to not use the tax code to pay for higher spending. However, there is strong support for the funeral trust provision and it is favorable to taxpayers.
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