injury or aggravation of the disease or injury directly resulted from the performance of military or naval duty, and that such person otherwise meets the requirements of the regulations which may be issued under the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 11. All offenses committed and all penalties or forfeiture incurred under the acts repealed by section 17 of this title may be prosecuted and punished in the same manner and with the same effect as if said repeal had not been made and any person who forfeited rights to benefits under any such acts shall not be entitled to any benefits under this title.

SEC. 12. That whoever in any claim for benefits under this title or by regulations issued pursuant to this title, makes any sworn statement of a material fact knowing it to be false, shall be guilty of perjury and shall be punished by a fine of not more than $5,000 or by imprisonment for not more than two years, or both.

SEC. 13. That if any person entitled to payment of pension, under this title, whose right to such payment under this title or under any regulation issued under this title, ceases upon the happening of any contingency, thereafter fraudulently accepts any such payment, he shall be punished by a fine of not more than $2,000 or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.

SEC. 14. That whoever shall obtain or receive any money, check, or pension under this title, or regulations issued under this title, without being entitled to the same, and with intent to defraud the United States or any beneficiary of the United States, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $2,000, or by imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.

SEC. 15. Any person who shall knowingly make or cause to be made, or conspire, combine, aid, or assist in, agree to, arrange for, or in any wise procure the making or presentation of a false or fraudulent affidavit, declaration, certificate, statement, voucher, or paper, or writing purporting to be such, concerning any claim for benefits under this title, shall forfeit all rights, claims, and benefits under this title, and, in addition to any and all other penalties imposed by law, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or imprisonment for not more than one year, or both.

SEC. 16. Every guardian, curator, conservator, committee, or person legally vested with the responsibility or care of a claimant or his estate, having charge and custody in a fiduciary capacity of money paid, under the provisions of this title, for the benefit of any minor or incompetent claimant, who shall embezzle the same in violation of his trust, or convert the same to his own use, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $2,000 or imprisonment at hard labor for a term not exceeding five years, or both.

SEC. 17. 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 the World War, 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) are hereby repealed, and all laws granting or pertaining to yearly renewable term insurance are hereby repealed, but payments in accordance with such laws shall continue to the last day of the third calendar month following the month during which this Act is enacted. The Administrator of Veterans' Affairs under the general direction of the President shall immediately cause to be reviewed all allowed claims under the above referred to laws and where a person is found entitled under this Act, authorize payment or allowance of benefits in accordance with the provisions of this Act commencing with the first day of the fourth calendar month following the month during which this Act is enacted and notwithstanding the provisions of section 9 of this Act, no further claim in such cases shall be required: Provided, That nothing contained in this section shall interfere with payments heretofore made or hereafter to be made under contracts of yearly renewable term insurance which have matured prior to the date of enactment of this Act and under which payments have been commenced, or on any judgment heretofore rendered in a court of competent jurisdiction in any suit on a contract of yearly renewable term insurance, or which may hereafter be rendered in any such suit now pending: Provided further, That, subject to such regulations as the President may prescribe, allowances may be granted for burial and funeral expenses and transportation of the bodies (including preparation of the bodies) of deceased veterans of any war to the places of burial thereof in a sum not to exceed $107 in any one case. The provisions of this title shall not apply to compensation or pension (except as to rates, time of entry into active service, and special statutory allowances), being paid to veterans disabled, or dependents of veterans who died, as the result of disease or injury directly connected with active military or naval service (without benefit of statutory or regulatory presumption of service connection) pursuant to the provisions of the laws in effect on the date of enactment of this Act. The term "compensation or pension" as used in this paragraph shall not be construed to include emergency officers' retired pay referred to in section 10 of this title.

7

SEC. 18. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1934, any pension, and/or any other monetary gratuity, payable to former members of the military or naval service in wars prior to the Spanish-American War, and their dependents, for service, age, disease, or injury, except retired pay of officers and enlisted men of the Regular Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard, shall be reduced by 10 per centum of the amount payable.

5 Section 17 was modified as to repeal of all prior laws by section 20, Public No. 78, 73d Congress, and Title III, Public No. 141, 73d Congress.

The United States Supreme Court by an opinion rendered June 4, 1934, in the cases of Margaret Shea Lynch v. United States; Sam Wilner, Etc. v. United States (78 Law Ed. 997) held that the due process clause of the United States Constitution prohibits the United States from_annulling the contracts of war risk insurance, and that the following clause in section 17, Public No. 2, 73d Congress.", all laws granting o or pertaining to yearly renewable term insurance are hereby repealed ineffectual to relieve the United States from all liability on the contracts without making compensation_to the beneficiaries.

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was

7 Section 17 was amended by paragraph 2, section 20, Public No. 78, 73d Congress, June 16, 1933, and by section 35, Title III, Public No. 141, 73d Congress, March 28, 1934. Section 18 was amended by section 21 (c), Title II, Public No. 141, 73d Congress, March 28, 1934.

SEC. 19. The regulations issued by the President under this title which are in effect at the expiration of two years after the date of enactment of this Act shall continue in effect without further change or modification until the Congress by law shall otherwise provide. SEC. 20. The President shall transmit to the Congress, as soon as practicable after the date of their issue, copies of all regulations issued pursuant to this title.

Approved March 20th, 1933.

[PUBLIC-No. 78-73D CONGRESS]

[H.R. 5389]

AN ACT

Making appropriations for the Executive Office and sundry independent executive bureaus, boards, commissions, and offices, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1934, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums are appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury, not otherwise appropriated, for the Executive Office and sundry independent executive bureaus, boards, commissions, and offices, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1934, namely:

Provided, That when found to be to the best interest of the United States, not to exceed $500,000 of this amount may be used for payments to State institutions caring for and maintaining veterans, suffering from neuropsychiatric ailments, who are in such institutions on the date of the enactment of this Act: Provided, That not to exceed $8,000,000 of this amount shall be available for all expenses and maintenance of all regional offices of the Veterans' Administration:

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Provided further, That the appropriations herein made for domiciliary care shall be available for continuing aid to State or Territorial homes for the support of disabled volunteer soldiers and sailors, in conformity with the Act approved August 27, 1888 (U.S.C., title 24, sec. 134), as amended, including all classes of veterans admissible to the Veterans' Administration homes:

Provided

further, That Section 6, Title I, of the Act entitled "An Act to maintain the credit of the United States Government," approved March 20, 1933, is hereby amended to read as follows: "Sec. 6. In addition to the pensions provided in this title the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs is hereby authorized under such limitations as may be prescribed by the President, and within the limits of existing Veterans' Administration facilities, to furnish to men discharged from the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, or Coast Guard for disabilities incurred

in line of duty and to veterans of any war, including the Boxer rebellion and the Philippine insurrection, domiciliary care where they are suffering with permanent disabilities, tuberculosis, or neuropsychiatric ailments and medical and hospital treatment for diseases or injuries.”9

That the Attorney General of the United States is hereby authorized to agree to a judgment to be rendered by the presiding judge of the United States court having jurisdiction of the case, pursuant to compromise approved by the Attorney General upon the recommendation of the United States Attorney charged with the defense, upon such terms and for such sums within the amount claimed to be payable, in any suit pending on March 20, 1933, and on the date of the enactment of this Act, brought under the provisions of the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, on a contract of yearly renewable term insurance, and the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs is hereby authorized and directed to make payments in accordance with any such judgment: Provided, That the Comptroller General of the United States is hereby authorized and directed to allow credit in the accounts of disbursing officers of the Veterans' Administration for all payments of insurance made in accordance with any such judgment: Provided further, That all such judgment shall constitute final settlement of the claim and no appeal therefrom shall be authorized.

SEC. 15. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 1934, every pension payable under any private relief Act, not subject to the provisions of sections 1 and 17 of title I of the Act entitled "An Act to maintain the credit of the United States Government ", approved March 20, 1933, shall, irrespective of the provisions of section 18 of title I of such Act, be reduced by the same percentage as that prescribed for the reduction of compensation of officers and employees under section 3 of title II of said Act.10

SEC. 20. The President is hereby authorized under the provisions of Public Law Numbered 2, Seventy-third Congress, to establish such number of special boards (the majority of the members of which were not in the employ of the Veterans' Administration at the date of enactment of this Act), as he may deem necessary to review all claims (where the veteran entered service prior to November 11, 1918, and whose disability is not the result of his own misconduct), in which presumptive service connection has heretofore been granted under the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, wherein payments were being made on March 20, 1933, and which are held not service connected under the regulations issued pursuant to Public Law Numbered 2, Seventy-third Congress. Members of such boards may be appointed without regard to the Civil Service laws and regulations, and their compensation fixed without regard to the

Section 6. Title I, Public No. 2, 73d Congress, was further amended by section 29, Title III, Public No. 141, 73d Congress, March 28, 1934. (See section 6, Public No. 2, 73d Congress, and footnotes.)

10 Section 15 was amended by section 21 (c), Title II, Public No. 141, 73d Congress, March 28, 1934.

Classification Act of 1923, as amended. Such special boards shall determine, on all available evidence, the question whether service connection shall be granted under the provisions of the regulations issued pursuant to Public Law Numbered 2, Seventy-third Congress (notwithstanding the evidence may not clearly demonstrate the existence of the disease or any specific clinical findings within the terms of or period prescribed by regulation 1, part I, subparagraph_(c), or instruction numbered 2, regulation numbered 1, issued under Public Law Numbered 2, Seventy-third Congress), and shall in their decisions resolve all reasonable doubts in favor of the veteran, the burden of proof in such cases being on the Government.

Nothwithstanding the provisions of section 17, title I, Public Numbered 2, Seventy-third Congress, any claim for yearly renewable term insurance on which premiums were paid to the date of death of the insured and any claim for pension, compensation allowance, or emergency officers' retirement pay under the provisions of laws repealed by said section 17 wherein claim was duly filed prior to March 20, 1933, may be adjudicated by the Veterans' Administration on the proofs and evidence received by the Veterans' Administration prior to March 20, 1933, and any person found entitled to the benefits claimed shall be paid such benefits in accordance with and in the amounts provided by such prior laws: Provided, That the payments hereby authorized to be made shall continue only to include June 30, 1933, and only one original adjudicatory action and one appeal may be had in such cases. Where a veteran died prior to March 20, 1933, under conditions which warrant the payment of, or reimbursement for, burial expenses, such payment or reimbursement may be made in accordance with the laws in effect prior to March 20, 1933, provided that claim for such payment or reimbursement must be filed within three months from the date of passage of this Act.

Nothwithstanding the provisions of Public Law Numbered 2, Seventy-third Congress, the decisions of such special boards shall be final in such cases, subject to such appellate procedure as the President may prescribe, and, except for fraud, mistake, or misrepresentation, 75 per centum of the payments being made on March 20, 1933, therein shall continue to October 31, 1933, or the date of special board decision, whichever is the earlier date: Provided, That where any case is pending before any one of the special boards on October 31, 1933, the President may provide for extending the time of payment until decision can be rendered.11 The President shall prescribe such rules governing reviews and hearings as may be deemed advisable. Payment of salaries and expenses of such boards and personnel assigned thereto shall be paid out of and in accordance with appropriations for the Veterans' Administration.

12 Notwithstanding any of the provisions of Public Law Numbered 2, Seventy-third Congress, in no event shall the rates of compensation payable for directly service-connected disabilities to those veterans

11 Time was extended to November 30, 1933, by the President in his letter dated October 19, 1933.

12 Fourth paragraph, section 20, was amended by section 28, Title III, Public No. 141, 73d Congress.