INCREASING COMPENSATION FOR WORLD WAR 1 PRESUMPTIVE SERVICE-CONNECTED CASES, PROVIDING MINIMUM RATINGS FOR SERVICE-CONNECTED ARRESTED TUBERCULOSIS, INCREAS ING CERTAIN DISABILITY AND DEATH-COMPENSATION RATES. LIBERALIZING REQUIREMENT FOR DEPENDENCY ALLOWANCES, AND REDEFINING THE TERMS "LINE OF DUTY" AND "WILLFUL

MISCONDUCT"

JULY 14, 1949.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. RANKIN, from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, submitted the following.

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 5598)

The Committee on Veterans' Affairs, to whom was referred the bil (H. R. 5598) to increase compensation for World War 1 presumptive service-connected cases, provide minimum ratings for service-connected arrested tuberculosis, increase certain disability and death compensation rates, liberalize requirement for dependency allowances, and redefine the terms "line of duty" and "willful misconduct". having considered the same, submit the following favorable report thereon and recommend that the bill do pass.

GENERAL STATEMENT

The committee considered numerous bills on the subject matter of the bill, conducted extensive hearings thereon and obtained testimony from the major veterans' organizations and representatives of the Veterans' Administration.

EXPLANATION OF THE BILL

Section 1 of the bill provides for payment of compensation to World War I veterans for disabilities service-connected by statutory presumption at the same rates (100 percent) as are payable for directly service-connected disabilities instead of the present law which provides for payment of 75 percent of such rates Section 200 of the World

War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, provided that persons in the armed forces during World War I, who entered active service before November 11, 1918, should be conclusively presumed to have been in sound condition when examined, accepted, and enrolled for service, except as to defects, disorders, or infirmities made of record at the time of, or prior to, inception of active service.

This act further provided that any ex-serviceman shown to have had, prior to January 1, 1925, a neuropsychiatric disease, spinal meningitis, an active tubercular disease, paralysis agitans, encephalitis lethargica, or amebic dysentery developing in 10 percent degree of disability, shall be presumed to have acquired his disability in active service. Section 17 of Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress, March 20, 1933, repealed all public laws granting compensation, including compensation provided under the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended. Such benefits were restored with limitations by Public, No. 141, Seventy-third Congress, March 28, 1934. One such limitation was that where service-connection had been established by virtue of statutory presumptions the compensation should be 75 percent of the rate otherwise payable. Your committee feels that the presumptions established by the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, were necessary to authorize the finding of service-connection in cases in which it was reasonable to assume that injury or disease was incurred in active military or naval service. Your committee further feels that in cases in which the service-connection of a disability is admitted, there is no sound justification for paying less than the full rate of compensation authorized by law, particularly in the case of World War I veterans suffering from the diseases above-mentioned.

Section 2 of the bill provides that any ex-service person shown to have active tuberculosis which is compensable under Public Law 2, Seventy-third Congress, and the Veterans Regulations issued pursuant thereto who has reached a condition of complete arrest shall be rated as totally disabled for a period of 2 years following the date of such arrest; as 50 percent disabled for an additional period of 4 years; and 30 percent for a further 5 years. Following far-advanced active lesions the permanent rating shall be 30 percent, and following moderately advanced lesions the permanent rating, after 11 years, shall be 20 percent, provided there is continued disability, dyspnea on exertion, impairment of health, etc.; otherwise the rating shall be zero percent. It is further provided that the total disability rating for 2 years following complete arrest may be reduced to 50 percent for failure to follow prescribed treatment or to submit to examination when requested.

Under existing regulations of the Veterans' Administration, ratings of 100 percent are provided for service-connected active pulmonary tuberculosis unless the veteran is employed without apparent detriment to his health. Such ratings are continued for 6 months after attainment of arrest or inactivity following hospitalization for active tuberculosis. At the end of the 6-month period, a 50-percent rating is provided for 4%1⁄2 years and a 30-percent rating for 5 years thereafter. In the case of far-advanced lesions, the 30-percent rating is continued for life, and in moderately advanced lesions after 10 years a 20-percent rating is continued for life where continued disability exists. The 100-percent rating following arrest may be continued for successive periods of 6 months, up to a maximum of 2 years.

It will be observed that section 2 of the bill would provide a rating of 100 percent for the first 2 years following arrest and a 50-percent rating for 4 years thereafter in lieu of the ratings presently provided by the Veterans Regulations for this period. The committee is of the opinion that the ratings provided by this section are in accord with sound. medical principles and that it is preferable that such ratings be fixed by law rather than by a variable determination as presently provided under Veterans Regulations. The statutory ratings proposed by section 2 of the bill would be available to all veterans who served either in peace or in war and who are eligible to benefits provided under Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress, and the Veterans Regulations promulgated pursuant thereto. The Veterans' Administration has stated that the cost of this section for the first fiscal year would be approximately $700,000.

Section 3 of the bill provides for increasing certain disability and death compensation rates. Subsection (a) would increase the basic rates for service-connected disability based on degree of disability. Under this subsection the wartime rate for total disability would be increased from $138 to $150 per month with proportionate increases for the nine degrees of partial disability. The new rates represent an increase of approximately 8.7 percent over existing rates for similar degrees of disability. The proposed increase would also result in an increase in the peacetime rates of service-connected disability based upon percent of disability in view of existing law which provides 80 percent of the rates authorized for wartime service for disability incurred in or as a result of peacetime service.

Section 3 (b) provides for an increase in the wartime rate of death compensation for a widow with one child from $100 to $105 per month, plus $25 per month for each additional child in lieu of $15 presently authorized. By virtue of the provisions of Public Law 868, Eightieth Congress, the peacetime rates of death compensation would be automatically increased to 80 percent of the wartime rates provided in this subsection.

It is the belief of your committee that the moderate increases provided in this section are in line with increases in present-day cost of living and the increased wages paid by private industries and the Government.

The Veterans' Administration estimates that section 3 (a) would increase the rates payable to 2,024,100 veterans of World Wars I and II, Spanish-American War, and the Regular Establishment at a cost for the first year of $84,432,000 and that section 3 (b) would provide increases in death compensation fo approximately 58,000 cases at an estimated cost for the first year of $7,368,000. The total cost of section 3 would approximate $91,800,000.

Section 4 of the bill authorizes the additional compensation provided under Public Law 877, Eightieth Congress, for the dependents of veterans whose service-connected disability is rated 50 percent. Public Law 877 presently provides additiona compensation for the dependents of veterans having a 60-percent or more service-connected disability. Your committee is of the opinion that existing law should be liberalized so as to include additional compensation for those war and peacetime veterans who are 50-percent disabled because such veterans generally are unable to secure suitable regular employment to adequately support themselves and their dependents.

It is estimated by the Veterans' Administration that the enactment of section 4 would result in additional cost the first year of approximately $15,406,300.

Section 5 of the bill has for its purpose the liberalizing of the lineof-duty requirements of Veterans Regulations with respect to a service person whose disease, injury, or death was incurred without willful misconduct on his part while in confinement under sentence of court martial or civil court. In such cases the disease, injury, or death would be deemed to have been incurred in line of duty if the sentence of the court martial did not involve an unremitted dishonorable discharge or if the offense for which convicted by civil court did not involve a felony, as defined under the laws of the jurisdiction where the service person was convicted by such civil court.

Under existing provisions of the law, compensation and pension are denied in many cases where the disability or death of the veteran occurred while he was confined under sentence of a court martial or civil court even though the disability or death are in no way attributable to the misconduct of the individual or connected with the circumstances involved in such court martial and conviction. This is a grave injustice which should be rectified.

There is no available information upon which to base an estimate of cost of this section, the Veterans' Administration states.

COST OF THE BILL

The Veterans' Administration has estimated that the total cost of the bill, H. R. 5598, insofar as the items thereof are susceptible of a cost estimate, would approximate $112,597,300 for the first year. The report of the Veterans' Administration on H. R. 5598 and the reports therein referred to are as follows:

Hon. JOHN E. RANKIN,

(No. 50]

VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION, Washington 25, D. C., April 19, 1949.

Chairman, Committee on Veterans' Affairs,

House of Representatives, Washington 25, D. C.

DEAR MR. RANKIN: Further reference is made to your letter of January 26, 1949, requesting reports on the following bills:

H. R. 292 and H. R. 911, Eighty-first Congress, each entitled "A bill to provide that veterans now receiving compensation for certain so-called presumptive disabilities equivalent to 75 per centum of the amount to which they were previously entitled shall henceforth have such compensation restored to 100 per centum thereof, and for other purposes";

H. R. 896 and H. R. 1414, Eighty-first Congress, each entitled "A bill to restore full compensation awards in World War I presumptively service-connected cases." The purpose of each of the mentioned bills is to provide for payment of compensation to World War I veterans for disabilities service-connected by statutory presumption at the same rates as are payable for directly service-connected disabilities. Under the present law rates of compensation to World War I veterans for disabilities service-connected by statutory presumption are 75 percent of the rates payable World War I veterans for directly service-connected disabilities.

The rates of compensation payable to World War I veterans for disabilities service-connected by statutory presumption under the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, were equal to the rates of compensation payable for disabilities directly service-connected. The first proviso of section 200 of that act provides that for the purpose of that section every officer, enlisted man, or other member employed in active service under the War Department or the Navy Department on or after April 6, 1917, and before July 2, 1921, and who was discharged or who resigned prior to July 2, 1921, and every such person who

entered active service on or before November 11, 1918, and was discharged or resigned on or after July 2, 1921, shall be conclusively held and taken to have been in sound condition when examined, accepted, and enrolled for service, except as to defects, disorders, or infirmities made of record at the time of, or prior to, inception of active service to the extent to which any such defect, disorder, or infirmity was so made of record.

The second proviso to section 200 of that act further provided, in effect, that veterans of World War I who were shown to have had, prior to January 1, 1925, neuropsychiatric disease, spinal meningitis, an active tuberculosis disease, paralysis agitans, encephalitis lethargica, or amoebic dysentery which was at least 10 percent disabling, were presumed to have acquired such disability during their war service. As to tuberculosis and spinal meningitis, the presumption was absolute. As to the other diseases, it was rebuttable by clear and convincing evidence.

Section 17, title I, Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress, March 20, 1933, repealed all public laws granting medical or hospital treatment, domiciliary care, compensation, and other allowances, pension, disability allowance, or retirement pay to veterans and the dependents of veterans of the Spanish-American War, including the Boxer Rebellion and the Philippine Insurrection, and World War I, or to former members of the military or naval service for injury or disease incurred or aggravated in the line of duty in the military or naval service, except so far as they relate to persons who served prior to the Spanish-American War and to the dependents of such persons and the retirement of officers and enlisted men of the Regular Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard.

Public, No. 2, supra, granted authority to the President to issue regulations, within certain broad limitations, providing the various forms of relief covered by the acts repealed. The act provided that the regulations of the President in effect at the expiration of 2 years from the date of enactment of the act would continue in effect without further change or modification until the Congress by law shall otherwise provide. The regulations promulgated by the President pursuant to the act made no provision for presumptions of service connection as previously provided under section 200 of the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended. Special review boards were established by the Administrator, pursuant to section 20, Public, No. 78, Seventy-third Congress, June 16, 1933, to review all claims (where the veteran entered service prior to November 11, 1918, and whose disability was not the result of his own misconduct) in which presumptive service connection had been granted under the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, and which were held not service-connected under the regulations issued pursuant to Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress. In determining whether service connection should be granted under the provisions of Veterans Regulations issued pursuant to Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress, the boards were instructed to resolve all reasonable doubts in favor of the veteran. the burden of proof being on the Government.

Public, No. 141, Seventy-third Congress, March 28, 1934, provided in sections 27 and 28, title III, for a restoration to the compensation rolls of World War I veterans who had been in receipt of compensation under section 200 of the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, prior to the repeal of that section by Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress, provided the veterans entered service prior to November 11, 1918, their disabilities were not the result of their own misconduct, and compensation had not been payable previously on account of fraud, misrepresentation of a material fact, or unmistakable error as to conclusions of fact or law. In those cases, however, where service connection had been established by virtue of the statutory presumptions, compensation was authorized at 75 percent of the rate otherwise payable. This provision is currently in effect, and applies to claims filed after March 19, 1933, as well as to cases on the rolls on that date. Based on the latest available figures, it is estimated that there are approximately 20,450 World War I veterans on the rolls for disabilities presumptively service-connected for which they are receiving 75 percent of the rates payable for directly service-connected disabilities. Of this number 2,550 are estimated to be service-connected under the statutory presumption of soundness contained in the first proviso of section 200, World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, while the remaining 17,900 are service-connected under the statutory presumptions contained in the second proviso of section 200. The repeal of the 75-percent limitation as to the 2,550 who are service-connected by statutory presumption of soundness would cost approximately $589,000, and such repeal as to the 17,900 veterans who are service-connected under the second proviso of section 200 would cost approximately $4,102,000, or a total of $4,691,000 for the first year.

H. Repts., 81-1, vol. 5-35