By Max Cacas
Buffalo, NY – One day after fainting during a speech, US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, returned to work on Capitol Hill Tuesday.
Sporting a thick, pink cashmere scarf wrapped several times around her neck for warmth, Senator Clinton listened attentively to a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on proposals to boost benefits paid to survivors of military servicemen and women who die in active duty. From time to time, concerned colleagues such as Connecticut Democrat Joe Lieberman, and Committee Chair Republican John Warner of Virginia, strolled over for a quiet personal chat, and expressions of concern over news that she fainted during a speech in Buffalo on Monday.
When it came time for her to speak, the New York Democrat, in a somewhat subdued voice, expressed her support for bills to raise the so-called "military death gratuity" to $100,000, and also boost the value of military life insurance to $400,000. Clinton says she also wants to look at those who try to fleece service people by selling them unneeded life insurance policies.
The bill to increase benefits paid to surviving military families may become part of an $80 billion spending bill for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.