Death Benefits for Soldiers to Continue WASHINGTON - Pentagon officials said Wednesday that they would contract with a charity group, the Fisher House Foundation, to restore death benefits to families of service members killed in action, including a $100,000 payment, that have been stopped by the government shutdown. The officials said the Pentagon would reimburse the group after the shutdown ended. But just before the Pentagon's announcement, the House voted unanimously to restore the benefits, a swift action reflecting the public outrage about this particular effect of the shutdown. On Wednesday, the remains of four soldiers killed over the weekend in Afghanistan were returned to families who had been initially told that the government could not pay for their death benefits or their funerals. How dare we not provide these grieving families with the necessary support in their time of need? Representative Sanford D. Bishop, Democrat of Georgia, asked on the House floor. Although Pentagon officials insisted on Tuesday that they could not do anything about restoring death benefits without Congressional approval, their agreement with Fisher House on Wednesday suggested that the officials had changed their minds. The Senate will not take up the House bill now that the Defense Department has acted. In addition to a $100,000 payment to each family, the death benefits include payment for burial and a 12-month basic allowance for housing, usually given in a lump sum to survivors commensurate with the rank of the service member. The Pentagon "has determined that we can enter into a contract with the Fisher House Foundation to provide these benefits," Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday in a statement. He traveled to Dover Air Force Base, Del., for the return of the remains of the soldiers recently killed in Afghanistan and to meet with their families. Death benefits had been initially withheld from, among others, the family of Lance Cpl. Jeremiah Collins Jr., 19, of the Marines, who died in Helmand Province in Afghanistan on Saturday. Fisher House provides military families with housing near hospitals, so they can be near sick or injured service members during a stay. Although the Pentagon could not solicit the group directly for what is essentially a loan, Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, brokered the arrangement. Also on Wednesday, Eric K. Shinseki, the secretary of veterans affairs, told a House committee that $6 billion in disability compensation, pension and education payments to hundreds of thousands of veterans would be halted if the shutdown continued into late October. On Tuesday, thousands of workers with the veterans agency were put on furlough. "Let me just say unequivocally that all the effects are negative, " Mr. Shinseki said of a protracted shutdown. Pointing out that some veterans who work for the V.A. would lose both their income and benefits should the shutdown continue, he said, "I have the responsibility of keeping them from becoming homeless." Although the Committee on Veterans Affairs tends to be less partisan than others, the us-against-them tenor of the continuing fight between Congress and the White House bled into the hearing. Representative Jeff Miller, Republican of Florida and chairman of the committee, said he had been frustrated in efforts to get information about the effect of the shutdown, including whether veterans would be able to continue getting counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder. They will. After commenting that the House had passed a bill to fund veterans" programs that the Senate had yet to take up, Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas, asked Mr. Shinseki, "Do you think Harry Reid doesn't like the V.A. or our veterans?" Mr. Reid is the Senate majority leader. Senate Democrats remain opposed to the House's piecemeal bills to reopen selective parts of the government. "Ever since the government shut down nine days ago, the House has tried to act like the government isn't shut down," said Senator Jon Tester, Democrat of Montana.