Legislation from Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Michigan, aims to reform a shortsighted military policy regarding return of fallen soldiers. The Pentagon now selects the airport at which to deliver the remains, regardless of family wishes.

Stupak’s bill, HR 691, puts airport decisions into the family’s hands. Rep. Mike Michaud, on March 20, signed as a co-sponsor to the bill, after hearing about the family of Sgt. Corey Dan of Norway, who were forced to drive to Manchester, N.H., to collect his remains.

Kudos to Rep. Michaud for his support of this worthy bill, and we urge him to fight for its passage in Congress.

SCHIPwreck

Sen. Olympia Snowe’s leadership on saving the State Children’s Health Insurance Program is appreciated, but her chosen vehicle to fund the program that covers 15,000 Maine children should be reconsidered.

Snowe has co-sponsored legislation to increase the per-pack cigarette tax by 61 cents – to an even dollar – with the additional revenues earmarked for SCHIP, which has an estimated $720 million shortfall this year, and needs $13 billion over the next five years.

The Senate approved the idea in a nonbinding vote Friday. Using regressive tobacco taxes to fund a low-income program, however, is problematic. Congress needs to find more solid financial footing for SCHIP, or it could again founder on funding shoals.

Follow the money

While debate rages over funding to fight the Iraq war, Sen. Susan Collins has rightfully kept her gaze on the taxpayer millions being wasted on the reconstruction effort.

Collins supports creating an independent commission to review reconstruction policies, following a string of alarming audits by the government’s watchdog agency in Iraq, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.

It could have wide implications. “(SIGIR’s) work suggests that Congress should revamp the way the federal government conducts significant relief and reconstruction efforts, whether it is in Iraq, Afghanistan, or even the Gulf Coast of the United States,” Collins said.

The senator is right. Cracks inside the American reconstruction effort must be patched, or chaos from the conflict won’t stop, even after sectarian violence and political upheaval is quelled.

Allen’s consistency

Rep. Tom Allen has been a stern critic of the Iraq conflict since voting against the invasion in 2002. He’s now staying this course by supporting the Iraq Accountability Act, which would create benchmarks for the Bush administration to push, and Iraq’s leaders to achieve, to lead Iraq out of civil war.

The leverage, says Allen, is the U.S. presence: if the benchmarks are met, troop withdrawal from a stable Iraq will start in mid-2008. If not, withdrawals will start earlier, leaving the fledgling Iraqi government to its fate.

The House approved the bill Friday, but it still faces stiff debate in the Senate. “Governance is no piece of cake,” Allen says. The congressman deserves respect for his resolute position on Iraq, and his continued work toward a political solution to the conflict is a credit to Maine.