§8102a Death gratuity for injuries incurred in connection with employee’s service with an Armed Force

Summary

The United States will pay up to $100,000 as a death gratuity right away after it gets official notice that an employee died from injuries while serving with an Armed Force in a contingency operation. The head of the department can choose to pay this for employees who died on or after October 7, 2001, but before this law was passed, if the death happened in the Operation Enduring Freedom or Operation Iraqi Freedom theater. The payment is reduced by any other U.S. death gratuity already paid for the same death. The money goes to the highest living survivor in this order: the spouse; the children in equal shares; any person or persons the employee named (such as parents, step-parents who acted as parents, brothers, or sisters); the parents in equal shares; then the brothers and sisters in equal shares. Children covered include legitimate, adopted, stepchildren who lived with the employee, and certain illegitimate children who meet specified conditions. Only one father and one mother (or their equivalents) count for parents, with preference to those who acted as parents when the person became an employee. An employee can name someone else to get part of the amount in 10 percent steps; any remaining share follows the survivor order. If an entitled person dies before getting the money, it goes to the next person in order. If a person with a spouse names someone else to receive all or part of the money, the agency must tell the spouse. "Contingency operation": see 10 U.S.C. 1482a(c). "Employee": see section 8101 and it also includes certain nonappropriated fund employees (10 U.S.C. 1587(a)(1)).