WASHINGTON (AP) - The House voted on Wednesday to make the Pentagon fly home the remains of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to the airport that is closest to their families.
A second measure would prevent war-deployed troops from permanently losing custody of their children.

The House approved the measures by voice vote as amendments to a $646 billion bill to fund the military in the budget year beginning Oct. 1.

The military in January started using chartered jets to fly the dead into smaller regional airports closer to their hometowns, instead of the nearest commercial airport.

While the military was not required to fly to the closest airport, a Pentagon spokesman, Maj. Stewart Upton, said that is the current practice.

Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., said it needs to be written into law.

“The Department of Defense has always claimed that their policy is to fly remains to the airport closest to the burial site, but several mourning families from my district ran directly into DOD ‘policy’ and the process was not nearly as rosy as the DOD claims,” Stupak said in a statement.

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