expected that only 165 veterans and survivors will be eligible for these loans in 1985. The Committee rejects this proposal. The reporting allowance fee is paid annually to cover the costs of administrative activities and report preparation for veterans and/ or dependent trainees. Payment is at the rate of $11 each year for trainees who have elected to receive advance pay and $7 for all other trainees. The Administration requests that these payments be increased to $15 and $11 respectively. Reporting fees have not been increased since 1977, (Public Law 95-202). The Administration is in the process of requiring more frequent certifications which will almost triple the certification workload at educational institutions, according to the VA. The Committee accepts the proposed increases on the assumption that the more frequent certifications will be implemented by the Veterans' Administration. 705-Authorize contributions for construction projects on land adjacent to and facilitating safe ingress and egress to national cemeteries. This proposal would allow the VA to contribute funds to local governments to improve roadways, construct traffic controls or other devices adjacent to national cemeteries if such is considered necessary for safety reasons. The Committee accepted this proposal when the House passed H.R. 2948 on May 24, 1983. 701-To provide benefits for Vietnam veterans who suffer from certain disabilities which may be related to exposure to Agent Orange and for veterans who suffer from certain disabilities which may result from exposure to ionizing radiation while in service. President's requests: Budget authority. Outlays.... Committee recommendations: Budget authority. On January 30, 1984, the House passed H.R. 1961 which would provide a disability allowance to veterans who served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam era and who later suffer from three specific disabilities. The same disability allowance would be payable to veterans who were exposed to ionizing radiation while participating in the testing of nuclear devices while in service and later suffer from three specific disabilities. Fiscal year 1984 budget authority costs for this bill would be $4.1 million with the same amount in outlays. The bill is pending in the Senate. Funds for this bill were included in the first concurrent budget resolution for 1984. Legislative proposal [In millions of dollars] 701-To increase from $35,000 to $50,000 the maximum amount of insurance available under the Servicemen's Group Life Insurance program. President's requests: Current law provides a maximum amount of Servicemen's Group Life Insurance coverage of $35,000 for members of the All-Volunteer Armed Forces. The last increase in this ceiling was effective December 1, 1981. The concept of Government life insurance at its inception in 1917 was to make life insurance protection available to the uniformed services at a reasonable cost in view of the fact that commercial insurance companies either refused to insure the lives of men subject to wartime risk through a war clause or were charging prohibitive premiums for waiving the clause. Servicemen's Group Life Insurance meets this need through a self-sustaining program with no cost to the Government. Under this proposal, the program, including the additional coverage provided herein, would continue to be self-supporting and would have no budgetary impact. Legislative proposal [In millions of dollars] 701-To add the disease systemic lupus erythematosis to the list of chronic diseases that are considered to be service-connected for purposes of veterans' benefits if occurring within 1 year from the date of a veteran's separation from service. President's requests: Budget authority. Outlays... Committee recommendations: Budget authority. Outlays...... 1 Insignificant. The Committee recommends this proposal because the insidious. characteristics of the disease and the difficulty in early detection warrants inclusion in the list of chronic diseases considered to be service-connected if the disease is manifested to a significant degree within one year after separation from service. [in millions of dollars] Legislative proposal 702-To require vocational counselling and training for new pension recipients under age 50 if such training is feasible. President's requests: Budget authority. Outlays... Committee recommendations: Budget authority.. The Committee recommends this initiative as a rehabilitative measure for younger veterans who become disabled after separation from service from causes unrelated to their service. This would provide both opportunity and incentive for these individuals to receive training to overcome the earning impairment caused by their severe disabilities. Pension under chapter 15 of title 38 would represent the VA monetary benefit payable to the veteran with the VA also providing the costs of tuition, books and fees for the training. Participation in the training program, where feasible, would be required in order for the veteran to receive pension. The Committee believes this initiative will be advantageous for the Federal Government and for the younger totally disabled veteran who has the potential for participation in the training program. Without training, veterans could be expected to stay on the pension rolls for life. The placement rate in suitable employment for service-connected veterans who now undergo such training is over 70 percent and the veterans who would benefit from this training should experience approximately the same placement rate. The Committee estimates that by the end of the third year of the program, 2,800 pensioners would be dropped each year from the pension rolls. Thus the saving realized by the end of the third year would equal the cost for that year with a cumulative savings at the end of 5 years of some $5 million in excess of the costs for that period. [In millions of dollars] Legislative proposal 702-To increase from $4,400 to $5,000 the maximum automobile assistance allowance, payable on a one-time basis, to certain severely disabled veterans. President's request: Budget authority. Outlays........ Committee recommendations: Budget authority. Current law provides for a $4,400 one-time grant to veterans who have suffered the service-connected loss or loss of use of one or both feet or hands or service-connected blindness to assist them in purchasing an automobile. The last increase, from $3,800 to $4,400, was effective October 1, 1981. This proposal would increase the grant effective October 1, 1984, so as to help insure that the value of this benefit keeps pace with inflation. [In millions of dollars] Legislative proposal 702-To establish new educational assistance programs for veterans and for members of the Armed Forces. President's request: Budget authority. Committee recommendations: Budget authority.. Outlays.. During the 97th Congress, H.R. 1400, the Veterans' Educational Assistance Act of 1981, was reported by this Committee and the House Armed Services Committee. This legislation would establish new educational assistance programs for veterans and members of the Armed Forces. This Committee again reported H.R. 1400 during the first session of the 98th Congress. The Armed Services Committee has completed hearings on the bill. There are a number of factors that are causing a downturn in the recruiting efforts of the Armed Services. The improving economy and decrease in unemployment will continue to make it much more difficult to reach their recruitment goals. In addition, the manpower pool of young men reaching 18 years of age is already declining and will continue to sharply decrease for the rest of this decade. In this regard, the Chief of Staff of the Army told the Congress that while the Army continues to meet its recruiting objective, it had 22 percent fewer off-the-street applicants during the last quarter of 1983 than it had in the previous year. Approval of a GI bill will not only improve the efforts of the Armed Forces and the Reserves to recruit more quality personnel, but will be, as previous GI bills have demonstrated, an investment in America. H.R. 1400 represents the best alternative for assuring adequate recruitment and retention of quality personnel for both the active and the reserve forces. Legislative proposal [In millions of dollars) 702-To extend Veterans Readjustment Authority Program for an additional 3 years to end September 30, 1987. President's request: Budget authority. Committee recommendations: Budget authority. The VRA authority provides improved employment opportunities for disadvantaged Vietnam era veterans. It allows agencies to hire these veterans without competition on Civil Service examinations and subsequently to convert them to career or career-conditional appointments after not more than 2 years of satisfactory employment and training. Since the program was established in 1970, VRA's have provided employment opportunities for more than 200,000 Vietnam era veterans. Over the past 5 fiscal years, minorities have received an average of 38 percent and women 9 percent of the total veterans readjustment appointments. The most recent data show a total of 7,200 VRA's made in the first half of fiscal year 1983. Of these, approximately 35 percent were minorities and 8 percent women. In January 1984, there were 571,000 unemployed Vietnam era veterans, with the age group 30-34 years, experiencing a 10.2 percent unemployment rate, as compared to 7.9 percent for non-veterans in the same age group. The most effective program of the Federal Government as an employer to reduce unemployment among Vietnam era veterans has been the VRA program. On March 1, 1984, the Subcommittee on |