WASHINGTON -- The Senate is expected to vote tomorrow to override a Republican roadblock that is stalling debate and a vote on legislation to give full veterans status to aging Filipino veterans who fought in the U.S. Army during World War II.

Republicans have blocked a package of veterans' health benefits, life insurance, education, housing and other benefits because of a provision that would grant special pensions of $300 a month to the Filipino veterans living in the Philippines.

Roughly 20,000 Filipino veterans -- about 2,000 in Hawai'i alone -- are still alive out of about 200,000 who fought for the U.S. during the war.

"This legislation will enable Congress to begin to rectify a wrong done to Filipino war veterans over 60 years ago," said U.S. Sen. Dan Akaka, D-Hawai'i, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee. "The United States has a moral obligation to care for those who have served under its flag."

Under current law, low-income veterans over 65 living in the United States can receive a pension -- almost $11,000 a year for single veterans -- and their survivors can get death pensions.

But U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., the top Republican on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, argued today that the providing the special benefit for the Filipino veterans still living in the Philippines would take away money that ought to be spent on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

"I'm for 99 percent of the bill," Burr said. "Drop the part that priorities somebody else in front of our veterans and I'm ready … to pass it (the legislation) by unanimous consent," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said that Filipino veterans were promised benefits comparable to those of American veterans.

"That promise has not been kept, and it's past time to make it right," he said.