Examples of family benefits for widows, dependent children, or dependent parents

The CHAIRMAN. How much do you think you need to get through? Mr. RICE. Not very much.

The CHAIRMAN. I was going to say you could extend your remarks in the record. It is only about 15 minutes of 12 o'clock.

Mr. RICE. I think I can wind up by that time.

The CHAIRMAN. I was going to say you can extend your remarks. Mr. RICE. Thank you; I would like to avail myself of that privilege as well.

An additional point that I would like to make relative to the distribution of purchasing power through pensions to disabled veterans and dependents of disabled veterans is that exactly the same amount of compensation will be paid in Arkansas and Mississippi to the veterans suffering there from permanent disability of certain degree as will be paid in New York, Massachusetts, California, or Washington. I contrast that with the very divergent scales of wages paid to W. P. A. workers depending on the State or the region or the area in which they may reside.

I also contrast that with the very wide ranges of sums of old-age assistance and aid to the blind and aid to dependent children payable in the various States, depending, as I have said before, on the State's ability and/or willingness to match the maximum amounts available from the Federal Social Security Board.

If a veteran is permanently and totally disabled, then, at the present time, under the inadequate law we now have, whether he lives on a farm, village, town, or city, he receives just $30 a month for the disability. He ought to receive twice that much, but every such

veteran would receive exactly the same amount no matter where he lives within the United States or outside the United States if he be a beneficiary thereof. It seems to me that this is a very important factor indeed, and one that cannot be too much emphasized. It seems to me too that this committee ought to assert itself and ought to be bold and brazen in the matter of asserting that the Federal Government should assume the sole responsibility for providing adequately for all disabled war, campaign, and expedition veterans, whether they be suffering from service-connected disability or nonservice-connected disability, as well as for the dependents of such veterans as have died.

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Rice, you do not have the relief schedule there, do you?

Mr. RICE. No; because that depends on schedules available in the various local communities. Let me say that these relief schedules range all the way from about $4 a month in some States to about $100 a month, depending on the particular township, city, county, or State which provides for such relief.

In many communities it is absolutely impossible to pay anything. There is no apt comparison that can be made as to relief payments, but they vary even more widely in amounts than is so as to W. P. A. wages. If one were to take the statistics that are put out by various societies to indicate the amounts of income required to maintain a decent standard of living, you will find out that the minimum amount is much more than the amount of pensions provided for totally -disabled veterans or their dependents.

When we compare such pensions with the statistics as to decent standard-of-living costs put out by the Department of Labor, or the Y. M. C. A., or the Y. W. C. A., and by various nonveteran organizations, then we find that disabled veterans, generally speaking, are compelled to live on a poor existence level, whether they be serviceconnected disabled veterans or non-service-connected pensioned

veterans.

The basis of $100 per month compensation for a permanent total service-connected disability is none too high. As a matter of fact, it could very well be considerably increased. Our espousal of pensions for those suffering with permament non-service-connected disabilities certainly should not imply that we want any reduction in the compensation now provided for service-connected disabled veterans what

soever.

At this point, permit me to discuss briefly the provisions of a bill introduced yesterday by the honorable chairman of this committee, Mr. John E. Rankin, identified as H. R. 8355, to provide greater uniformity of and entitlement to adjudication of certain benefits for certain classifications of veterans and their dependents.

Section 1 of H. R. 8355 would provide for a uniform preclusion of death, as to all laws administered by the Veterans' Administration, in effect providing that the unexplained absence of any ex-service man from his usual place of abode for several years, for whom diligent search shall have been made, shall be deemed sufficient evidence of his death. There is a real need for such a law, inasmuch as many potential claims must be left in abeyance indefinitely, because of the inability of the next of kin to establish the death of the veteran,

which, if proven, would entitle him to pension, compensation, insurance, or other benefits.

Section 2 of this bill would provide that the widows and orphans of those veterans who, at time of death, were in receipt of monetary benefits for disabilities resulting from hospitalization, physical training, or medical or surgical treatment, should be considered to be eligible to receive pensions on the same basis as the widows and orphans of veterans whose disabilities were caused by their military service. The justice of this proposed legislation is apparent upon this mere statement.

Section 3 of H. R. 8355 is similar to section 2 except that it would provide eligibility for compensation for any World War veteran suffering with a disability incurred as the result of a Veterans' Administration examination, and would provide eligibility for pensions to the widows and orphans of such veterans, on the same basis as though the veteran's disabilities were incurred during military service.

Section 4 would provide that there should be no recovery of payments from any Veterans' Administration beneficiary who, in the judgment of the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs, is without fault on his part, and where such recovery would defeat the beneficiary of payments otherwise authorized, with the contemporary provision that no adjudicating or disbursing officer shall be held liable for the recovery of any such overpayment as may have been waived. Such a provision is now in effect as to compensation and pension, but not as to adjusted compensation or insurance payments. It would seem in the interest of administration simplicity that such uniform provision as to waiver of overpayments ought to be enacted into law.

Section 5 provides for uniformity as to payment of burial and funeral expenses of the various classifications of veterans, and extends the time within which to make application for reimbursement therefor to 2 years subsequent to the date of burial of the veteran, with the further provision that evidence in support of such application must be submitted within 1 year thereafter. In order to provide uniformity as to administrative procedure, and somewhat more equitable arrangements on behalf of the next of kin in claiming reimbursement for such burial and funeral expenses, the uniformity of this section of H. R. 8355, we believe, is justifiable.

Section 6 of this bill in effect provides that whenever a forfeiture of rights, claims, or benefits of any alleged offender has been adjudged by the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs then he shall cause a complaint to be filed and if such alleged offender shall be acquitted, or not brought to trial within 1 year, then all previous rights, benefits, and claims lost by such forfeiture shall be restored to such person, effective from the date of the original forfeiture.

Section 7 would provide for the same thing as section 6 except to make it acceptable as to all benefits and rights available on the basis of the so-called Economy Act.

These proposals to provide uniform presumptions of death of disappeared veterans, eligibility for pensions for the widows and orphans of all compensated disabled veterans, waivers of overpayments, burial and funeral expense reimbursements, and restoration of forfeitures for unconvicted offenders would considerably simplify

the administration of laws by the Veterans' Administration, thus tending to save administrative expense and confusion, and would tend to make certain classifications of benefits more equitable and uniform. We believe this bill worthy of being enacted into law by this session of Congress.

I now want to take up before the committee our program to provide pensions for World War veterans suffering with permanent non-service-connected disabilities. Let me first emphasize the fact that three sections in this bill, namely, sections 2, 4, and 5 look toward the liberalization of the definition of permanent and total disability, so far as non-service-connected cases are concerned.

The Veterans' Administration is now operating under a law which in effect provides that a permanent and total disability shall be taken to exist where there is present any impairment of mind or body which is sufficient to render it impossible for the average person to follow a substantially gainful occupation. We believe that ought to be changed to "to be determined on the basis of inability of the 'individual person,' " rather than the "average person," to follow a gainful occupation. We must realize that although all men supposedly are created equal, they are not created equal in their respective abilities or potentialities. They do not have the same degree of education or experience. They do not, therefore, have the same adaptability or the same employability. If a man, who has had very little experience, education and training, and very little adaptability has become slightly disabled from a physical standpoint, it is entirely possible that he may have been thereby rendered actually unemployable, whereas a man who has adaptability may still be employable and, therefore, did not lose as much. The first man has lost practically all that he had.

Now, on the basis of the "average person" determination, an unemployable disabled man, who is below normal in his ability and in his adaptability, frequently finds that he cannot get a permanent and total rating for his non-service-connected disability. We believe there is dire need for a change in this law. All that it would need would be to change the words "average person" to the word "individual," and also to add the words "and/or defects" following the word "impairment" so that a rating agency could also take into consideration the fact that a man has a defect which in part brings about his unemployability and, therefore, his permanent and total disability.

The Administrator of the Veterans' Administration might say there is no need for any such change in the law, inasmuch as he personally has the authority to rate a claim on an individual basis, but nevertheless, I want to call your attention to the fact that the local rating boards cannot make a determination of permanent and total disability on the basis of the individual case. They must now do so on the basis of the average person. If the local rating board believes the case to be sufficiently meritorious to deserve the attention of the Administrator, then they may send it up to the Central Board of Appeals and finally to the Administrator. If I am not badly mistaken, the testimony submitted by Congressman Van Zandt before this committee was to the effect that there has been somewhat less than 400 cases that have been favorably acted on by the Administrator himself on the basis of the authority that is granted per

sonally to him. As proof of the fact that the Administrator himself considers that such an individualized definition of permanent total disability can be provided for only by the enactment of a law so authorizing, I submit for the record a letter received from General Hines, as follows:

Mr. J. D. CHITTENDEN,

Director, National Service Bureau,

Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States,

DECEMBER 29, 1939.

Washington, D. C.

MY DEAR MR. CHITTENDEN: Further reference is made to your letter of September 30, 1939, concerning resolutions Nos. 22 and 23 which were adopted by the Veterans of Foreign Wars during the fortieth annual encampment of that organization. The belief is expressed by you that the object of these resolutions may be accomplished by administrative action and you request such action be taken.

Resolution No. 22 contains the request that steps be taken either through legislative enactment or modified regulations to provide for permanent total disability determinations in nonservice-connected cases on the basis of individual inability to earn a support rather than through the application of a rating schedule. The law now permits payments only for disability, that is, for impairments resulting from disease or injury. In dealing with the case of an unemployed veterans, it is difficult to assess the importance of various factors causing continued unemployment, including various personal and economic factors as well as the effect of disability, and thus to determine whether the disability has produced the unemployment. Such determinations as to the effect of disability are necessarily dependent upon comparative ratings assigned in a rating schedule.

You will no doubt recall that several bills were introduced in the Seventysixth Congress, having for their purpose a requirement to assign a rating of permanent total disability to all cases in which the individual was unable to earn a living without reference to the nature and extent of his disability as such. If this resolution is designed to seek that objective regardless of the nature and extent of the disability which is alleged to result in inability to earn a living, legislation to that end would be required.

In the title of resolution No. 23 reference is made to permanent total ratings for active tuberculosis but in the text of the resolution we find the request that regulations or the law be modified so as to provide only total ratings for all active tuberculars. The ratings for disability resulting from pulmonary tuberculosis are based upon (1) the lesions and (2) the symptoms, in accordance with the Scheme for Classification, American Tuberculosis Association. Pulmonary tuberculosis like other diseases, has greatly differing expressions in individuals. The present provisions of the 1933 Schedule for Rating Disabilities, including Extension No. 3, as of May 1939, provide for quite liberal ratings. The Veterans' Administration now concedes total disability in all cases of authenticated active pulmonary tuberculosis. However, the response of this disease to treatment is so favorable, even with men who are World War veterans at their present average age, that permanent total disability cannot now be uniformly conceded.

Very truly yours,

FRANK T. HINES, Administrator.

Mr. VAN ZANDT. Will the gentleman yield?

I have here a communication from General Hines in which he gives the exact statement; you can include that in your testimony.

Mr. RICE. May that be included in the testimony?

The CHAIRMAN. Yes.

(The communication is as follows:)

Hon. JAMES E. VAN ZANDT,

VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION,

Washington, April 3, 1939.

House of Representatives, Washnigton, D. C.

MY DEAR MR. VAN ZANDT: Reference is made to your letter of March 27, 1939, inquiring as to the number of permanent and total pensions, under Veterans Regulation 1 (a), Part III, granted by me personally.