GOLD GIVES

OF A CA

Gold Star Wives of America, Inc.

STATEMENT OF MRS. GERALDINE B. CHITTICK, NATIONAL LEGISLATIVE CHAIRMAN, GOLD STAR PRESENTED BY MRS. LORRAINE S. PATTERSON, WASHINGTON REPRE

WIVES OF AMERICA, INC.

SENTATIVE

MAY 8, 1975

Senator Hartke and members of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs Sub-Committee on Compensation and Pensions, we do appreciate not only this opportunity to present our views on proposed legislation but also to recognize and extend thanks for the past considerations this Committee has given and for the benefits which have been accomplished through its diligent and persevering efforts. Certainly GOLD STAR WIVES OF AMERICA has benefited from the establishment of a Senate Committee several years ago when we gave our support to the need of such a committee.

We are grateful to you, Chairman Hartke, for introducing Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Bill S. 1597. The action of this Committee in treating the matter of DIC for service widows and children with such urgency and expediency is gratifying to Gold Star Wives. The foresight of incorporating increases in the Budget Committee consideration is heartwarming and encouraging to those of us who feel a great responsibility in representing a group such as ours.

The recommended 14% increase in compensation is vital to great numbers of service widows. The continued rate of inflation since the raise in 1974 (even though it was generous enough to equal the current CPI at the time of its effective date) did not allow any margin to recoup the heavy depletion of resources during the extremely high and rapid rise in cost of living during the over-long 28 months between that increase and the previous one January 1972.

Although Gold Star Wives of America has reservations about pleading for automatic cost-of-living increase provisions in DIC legislation, it is evident that the spiraling trend in rising COL these past several years has caused "periodic Congressional review' to be wholly inadequate to prevent many service widows from existing on a poverty level.

Letters from members stress dire situations existing due to the higher costs of all necessities of life. Those widows whose only income is their fixed monthly DIC are hit hardest. Many of them are reaching that fearful situation in which health problems will not permit gainful employment to supplement DIC, but it is during a time in which there remains an interval before becoming eligible for Social Security or other disability or retirement benefits.

Those widows who chose to locate near military installations in order to take advantage of the commissary and hospital benefits have recently been experiencing still further inroads into their fixed income through the depletion of the savings formerly available from those sources. Even if determined to be eligible for Disability Medicare, the costs of supplemental insurance coverage is prohibitive when fixed income is already inadequate to meet the basic necessities.

We realize that the depressed state of the nation's economy forces this Committee and Congress to carefully evaluate its priorities. However, we still have faith that the widows who have carried the greatest burden of active warfare shall not be forgotten.

The emotional strain on the Vietnam widow during recent months of evaluation of that conflict has become one more traumatic episode in a series of abuse and taunts. While many in our country would like to forget the whole era, we are grateful that this committee does recognize that current public opinion does not change the nation's responsibility and obligation to those who made the supreme sacrifice for what seemed the right and patriotic thing to do.

We trust that this proposed DIC legislation will move through Committees and the Congress with expediency in order that the effective date as proposed will be met.

Respectfully submitted,

Geraldine B. Chittick

Mrs. Geraldine B. Chittick
National Legislative Chairman
Gold Star Wives of America, Inc.

We would like to submit this letter for the record as representing the views of the Blinded Veterans Association in connection with the hearings your SubCommittee held on May 8, 1975 on S. 1597, "A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to increase the rates of disability compensation for disabled veterans; to increase the rates of dependency and indemnity compensation for their survivors; and for other purposes."

The BVA supports the early enactment of S. 1597. This position and the
views set out below are necessarily based on the remarks of Senator
Hartke when he introduced the bill, as we have not yet been able to obtain
a copy of the bill itself.

We are particularly pleased that the two major objectives of S. 1597 --increase in service-connected disability compensation and provision of adequate survivorship benefits for the families of veterans totally and permanently disabled from service-connected causes --- correspond with the two top priority items set out in the Legislative Program which the BVA presented to the full Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on March 13, 1975. I enclose a copy of that statement for your reference.

While our March 13th statement describes in some detail the reasons why
we believe an increase in disability compensation as proposed in S. 1597
is fully justified, I would like to summarize these reasons very briefly
as follows:

The cost-of-living has continued to skyrocket since the
previous increase in compensation last year; the CPI has
risen from 145.5 to 157.9 between May, 1974 and March 1975.
This increased cost-of-living has imposed serious hardships
on most BVA members and other severely disabled veterans who
are almost entirely dependent on their disability compensa-
tion for the support of themselves and their families.

Social Security beneficiaries, retired personnel and retired
Civil Service personnel have had their compensation adjusted
repeatedly and automatically to keep abreast of the cost-of-
living.

CHARTERED BY THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES

To the foregoing, I would like to add another reason why we believe increased compensation would be fully justified at this time. It would add an additional stimulus to the economy by the payment of earned and justified benefits to a group of recipients who are largely at the low end of the income scale, many of whom receive little or no benefit from other federal stimulative programs.

We believe many of the reasons cited above apply equally to the need for an increase in dependency and indemnity compensation (DIC) for survivors of veterans who die of service-connected causes. Accordingly, we fully support the provisions of S. 1597 insofar as it pertains to this subject.

With respect to the other major provisions of S. 1597, we believe that the following reasons constitute a compelling basis for extending dependency and indemnity coverage to the survivors of permanently and totally disabled veterans:

Severely disabled veterans find it difficult, if not im-
possible, to obtain the employment which will enable them
to provide survivorship protection through Social Security
and to otherwise build an estate.

Severely disabled veterans incur difficulty in obtaining
life insurance at reasonable rates.

The survivors of severely disabled veterans need assured
and adequate protection; a recent VA study shows that sur-
vivorship benefits for such families are presently avail-
able only to some, depending on the happenstance of the
cause of death.

The wives of severely disabled veterans often must forego
employment that the added income would bring to the family
and the financial protection this would bring them in order
to assist in the care of their husbands.

There is precedent in already existing legislation for equat-
ing thefamilies of permanently and totally disabled veterans
with the families of diseased veterans. Such legislation
includes the War Orphans Act and those examples cited by Sen-
ator Hartke when he introduced S. 1597; educational and train-
ing assistance benefits under chapter 35, title 38, United
States Code, medical benefits under the CHAMPVA program and
job counselling, training, and placement assistance made avail-
able under Public Law 93-508. As Senator Hartke stated, "auto-
matic entitlement to DIC benefits would be a logical extension
of the special status we accord to the spouses of severel-
disabled veterans."

Canada has recognized the necessity for providing such
survivorship protection not just to its permanently and
disabled veterans but also for those who are 50 percent
or more disabled.

In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, let me stress the urgency of early action on S. 1597. The cost-of-living rises inexorably every month, a growing number of permanently and totally disabled veterans die each month, especially in the largest group from World War II. Our members are all disabled veterans and their families look to you to remedy the financial hardships these circumstances impose. Prompt action on S. 1597 will provide such remedy.