Senate Rejects Bill to Prevent ‘Gulf Orphans’
The Senate on Wednesday night defeated the “gulf orphans” measure that would have asked the Defense Department to reassign from the Persian Gulf single parents and military couples with children.
“It is a grave danger to the well-being of our military families and their children to allow the children of American servicemen and women to become orphaned,” argued the measure’s sponsor, Sen. John Heinz (R-Pa.), before the Senate rejected it 54-38.
But Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) said such a provision would be “grossly unwise” on the apparent eve of a ground assault aimed at driving Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. He said it could severely disrupt the war effort.
He also said that every man and woman in the military is a volunteer and that every one could have avoided the risk by voluntarily leaving the service.
“Would it be fair to place a higher value on the life of a person with a dependent than a person without a dependent?” he asked.
Glenn, backed by Senate veterans of earlier wars, gave the Senate an alternative resolution that urges the Pentagon to establish a uniform policy on deployment with special consideration for single parents, married couples with children and parents of newborn children.
The Senate approved Glenn’s resolution 91-0.
Heinz’s proposal was also opposed by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
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