Mariners dismayed by anonymous bill change
by B. Jonathan Osborne
The Hill, The Capitol Newspaper, February 24, 1999
A change in legislative language, for which nobody accepts responsibility, has baffled merchant mariners who served in World War II and want to be granted burial rights as veterans.
In a bill intended to grant burial rights to mariners who served in World War II after Aug. 15, 1945, a key word was changed after the bill was approved by senators, but before the final version was passed into law. According to the mariners, the change in language threatens their 20-year struggle.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott (R-Miss.), writer of the bill's initial language, is honing in on the problem.
"Sen. Lott's certainly expressed an interest to get this program together and straightened out to get this thing moving as quickly as possible so these guys aren't denied the burial they're deserving," Jim Sartucci, spokesman for Lott said.
The section of H.R. 4110 relevant to the burial rights of the mariners was drafted from Lott's proposed Senate bill S. 61, which called for a corrective measure to grant those mariners at sea after Aug.15, 1945, but before Dec. 31, 1946, an honorable discharge - a term missing from HR 4110.
According to Joe Katusa, national volunteer chairman of the Merchant Mariners Fairness Committee, the mariners were upset see the language had been changed. "The amendment didn't appear to do what we thought it should or what Sen. Lott intended."
House Veterans' Affairs Committee Chairman Bob Stump's (R-Ariz.) office disagrees, claiming the bill was passed in good faith. "I don't think it was ever intended to deny them from getting the recognition these guys called for," Pat Ryan, spokesman for Stump and the Veterans' Affairs Committee, said. "It seems to me they're not happy with what Sen. Lott proposed."
After the bill was approved by both the Senate on Sept. 30, 1998, and the House on Oct. 10, it went into conference where the mariners say the language was changed without the knowledge of key members of Congress. They say on Oct. 7, 1998, the mariners were shown, by the office of Veterans Committee Ranking Minority Member Lane Evans (D-Ill.), a copy of the section added to the omnibus Veteran Benefits Bill dated Oct. 6, drafted by Stump's office. At the time, the language included the term "honorable discharge." When the bill was put into law on Oct.21, the word "discharge" had been replaced with the word "certificate.""All of us already had a certificate of honorable service," Mark Gleeson, the vice chairman of the Merchant Mariners Fairness Committee and the first mariner to notice the change, said. "If you are going to be a veteran, though, you must have an honorable discharge."
The Veterans' Affairs Committee, refusing to comment on when, or by whom, the words were changed, claims the change was a technical clarification.
"It is my understanding that a certificate of honorable discharge would entitle them to all veterans' benefits," Ryan said, not just burial rights. "[The change in words] was just to avoid confusion between people who are entitled to the entire range of benefits and those that are not - my sense is [burial rights] is not all they want."
Stump's office is confident that the intent of the bill will come to fruition. "The only thing that hasn't happened is they haven't died," Ryan said.
For the past 10 years, Joe Katusa has been a part of this fight with Congress and the Department of Defense (DoD).
"All we want is a certificate of acknowledgment for our grandchildren that says your grandfather was a veteran of World War II," Katusa said. "An interpretation of the original law states clearly that the merchant mariners become a part of the Navy at times of war."
Katusa fears there will be delays in the Pentagon. "I don't think the Department of Defense wants us recognized," Katusa said. "When you ask them why our petition hasn't been acted on they'll show you some dance steps you're not familiar with yet."
The Mariners originally petitioned the DoD Civilian/Military Review Board in 1979 for recognition. The board turned them down. The AFL-CIO signed on to their case and they filed suit in the D.C. Federal Court where U.S. District Judge Louis Oberdorfer ruled that the Secretary of the Air Force had acted "arbitrarily and capriciously" in denying veterans' status to merchant seamen.
In accordance with the ruling, the DoD revised its regulations to grant recognition, honorable discharge and medical benefits to only those seamen who were at sea before Aug. 15, 1945, even though President Harry Truman and the 79th Congress declared that Dec.31, 1946 marked the end of World War II. To resolve this problem, the mariners turned to legislation.
A bill introduced in 1989 by Rep.Jack Fields (R-Texas) passed the House for the next three years but each time died in the Senate.
In an effort reborn by Lott, the corrective measure was attached to the Veterans' Benefits Bill (H.R. 4110) in the 105th Congress and gained the sponsorship of 337 House and 73 Senate members.