Another thing.....
the undersecretary of defense was RIGHT a few days prior to the shutdown. The death gratuity is a legally separate pool of funds from pay and allowances. The law to pay the military only covers pay and allowances.
The DoD would have been on the wrong side of the law to pay those gratuities.
And they said something about it days prior to the shutdown.
The president knew, and congress knew. To blame the missing KIA gratuity on the DoD, and not on congress/the pres, is simply wrong.