Still, the announcement clearly pleased advocates who had spent years pushing for expanded benefits for T.B.I. "Veterans should be pleased with the new regulations," said Paul Sullivan, a leading advocate for the proposed regulations.
Picker suggested the board refrain from pushing for expanded benefits until Seeling, the CalPERS actuary, had come up with best- and worst-case scenarios for investments over the next decade.
But advocates for expanding benefits for Navy veterans said they would continue pushing for legislation that would make it as easy for deep-water sailors to receive health care and disability payments for Agent Orange exposure as it is for infantrymen.
"We're glad that, for the first time, Secretary Clinton has indicated that she will join me in expanding Social Security benefits," Sanders said in a statement, not acknowledging that Clinton previously had professed support for expanding benefits.
In a special message to Congress calling for expanding benefits and protecting them against inflation, Nixon proclaimed, This nation must not break faith with those Americans who have a right to expect that Social Security payments will protect them and their families.
He said that his mother could have relied instead on private charity, and that it was a mistake for black politicians to fight for expanded welfare benefits.
The $56 million would pay for the expanded benefits for five years, Mr. Emsellem said.
However the department acknowledges that thousands more troops with T.B.I. may be eligible for the expanded benefits.
