Senate Chaplain: Death Benefits Delay Is 'Incomprehensible'

As the government shutdown continues, Barry Black, the 62nd Chaplain of the United States Senate and a rear admiral in the United States Navy, is no longer straddling the middle.

He calls the delay of death benefits to the families of recently killed service members "incomprehensible."

Black told Here & Now's Robin Young that his 27-year service as a chaplain in the Navy and Marines has made the issue of death benefits resonate with him. One of his duties was to tell the family when a soldier died.

"I know what it feels like to be reading the newspapers searching for an understanding of what kind of support and back up you're receiving from your government, so the idea of adding wait to the burden of grieving families is, to me, unthinkable,"  Black said. "There comes a time when it doesn't matter who is right or wrong."