Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mark Begich urged the administration in Senate floor speeches Thursday to change its stance on a provision they inserted in the 2010 Senate Defense Bill to restore pay for 26 elderly members of the Alaska Territorial Guard. Begich said one of the veterans died this week, leaving 25. The pay was reduced in January after a law passed by Congress in 2000 was reinterpreted to no longer recognize the service as federal active duty.
The administration says the action would establish a precedent of treating service by state employees as active duty to compute such pay.
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