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Link: Alaska Public Radio Network Sen. Mark Begich says he's confident military pension benefits will be restored to 26 elderly World War II Alaska Territorial Guardsmen who, the Defense Department and the Obama administration say, do not qualify for benefits under existing law. The administration says such pensions would create a precedent for granting federal benefits to people who essentially were state employees (even though Alaska wasn't a state in World War II). But Begich and Sen Lisa Murkowski disagree. "As a territory, [Alaska was] more connected with the federal government than anything. ... There's a limited number of individuals that would qualify. I don't think there's a lot of basis to their fear [of a precedent]." Begich says he and Murkowski have inserted language in the current defense appropriations bill that would restore the pensions, and he doesn't anticipate opposition from other congressmen.