ADMINISTRATION OF CEMETERIES

TUESDAY, MARCH 26, 1968

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SPECIAL SUBCOMMITTEE ON CEMETERIES AND BURIAL BENEFITS,

Washington, D.C.

The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to call, in room 362, Cannon House Office Building, Hon. Olin E. Teague (chairman of the subcommittee and the full committee) presiding.

Mr. TEAGUE of Texas. The committee will come to order.

Before we begin this morning, I want to say that Members of Congress who have introduced bills related to cemeteries have been advised of these hearings and have been invited to submit statements for the record. Without objection, a list of bills and statements received from authors of bills will be inserted in the record at the conclusion of today's hearing. Such other statements and material pertinent to these hearings as may become available prior to the printing of these hearings will be inserted in the record at an appropriate point.

I ask that the message of the President of January 30, 1968, entitled "Our Pride and Our Strength: America's Servicemen and Veterans," be included at this point in the record, and following that, excerpts from the Congressional Record of March 14, 1968, containing the debate of the House on House Resolution 1031, and recommendation No. 26 of the U.S. Veterans' Advisory Commission.

(The information referred to follows:)

OUR PRIDE AND OUR STRENGTH: AMERICA'S SERVICEMEN AND VETERANS

To the Congress of the United States

"TO CARE FOR HIM.

Looking beyond the tragedy of war, Abraham Lincoln saw a 'nation's obligation "to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan.'

His words are enshrined in the spirit of this country's concern for its veterans and servicemen.

American holds some of its greatest honors for the men who have stood in its defense, and kept alive its freedoms.

It shows its gratitude not only in memorials which grace city parks and courthouse squares across the land-but more meaningfully in the programs which "care for him . . . and for his widow and his orphan."

OUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS SO FAR

As the result of legislation over the past several years, today's veteran can continue his education through a new GI Bill of Rights, which right now is helping 400,000 men and women.

He can buy a home with a Veterans Administration-insured mortgage. Over 200,000 veterans have purchased houses because of this provision.

If he receives a pension, his increased payments now can afford him a better standard of living.

If he is disabled, or needs special medical care, he is eligible for the same benefits his fellowmen of earlier conflicts received.

FISCAL YEAR 1969 VETERANS BUDGET

In the Fiscal 1969 Budget, we will have budget outlays of $7.3 billion to provide services for America's 26 million veterans and their families, who make up 46 percent of the nation's population.

With these funds, we can continue the programs already in existence, and begin the new ones I will outline in this Message.

BASIC BENEFITS

Two programs to extend the basic benefits to America's veterans and servicemen are left on the unfinished agenda of the 90th Congress.

In my 1967 Message on America's Servicemen and Veterans, I proposed measures to:

Increase Servicemen's Group Life Insurance from a maximum of $10,000 to a minimum of $12,000—with higher amounts scaled to the pay of the serviceman, up to a maximum of $30,000.

Protect the veteran against disproportionate pension losses that could result from increases in other income such as Social Security.

I once again-once more-urge the Congress to enact these proposals. Now, to continue and bring up-to-date our efforts to help the veteran and his family, I recommend two new legislative proposals.

First, I ask the Congress to increase the maximum guarantee on GI home loans from $7,500 to $10,000.

Home mortgage guarantees under the GI Bill normally cover about 35 percent of the value of a loan.

For eighteen years, that guarantee has remained at $7,000-adequate in 1950, but no longer so in today's housing market.

The increase I am recommending will help the veteran to purchase a decent home and get the financing protection which the law promises him.

Since World War II, with encouragement of the Government and supported by GI Bill gurantees, some $68 billion have been loaned by the private sector to homebuying veterans.

This suggests the beneficial impact the program has had on our economy.

But its meaning reaches deeper into the traditional values of American life. Almost 7 million veterans-many of them of modest means and some without even the money for a down payment-have experienced the satisfaction of home ownership through this program.

Second, I propose that the benefits of Vocational Rehabilitation be extended to service-disabled veterans being trained on a part-time as well as full-time basis.

Presently, a disabled veteran can take Vocational Rehabilitation and receive a training allowance only if he trains full-time. This restriction may present him with a hard choice: either leave his job for training, or forego the training itself.

Clearly, that choice is unfair.

The disabled veteran should be able to keep his job while he prepares for a better one through vocational training, drawing the allowance it provides.

THE QUALITY OF ADMINISTRATION

The purpose of our veterans program is to serve those who have served us. That purpose can be blunted unless the quality of program administration keeps pace with the growth of our veteran population. Last year, almost three quarters of a million servicemen and women returned to civilian life. This year, that number will increase to over 850,000.

The ultimate effectiveness of our programs turns on these conditions:
The veteran must be aware of them.

He must be able to choose among them.

He must know that the help he needs will be there when he needs it. We have tried to make certain that men leaving the service become familiar with the benefits that await them as veterans.

Last year, at my direction, the Veterans Administration took its services to the battlefield for the first time. VA teams counseled 220,000 fighting men in Vietnam, before they left their post to return home.

I have asked the Administrator of Veterans Affairs to step up this program. Late in 1966, the Veterans Administration began visiting sick and wounded servicemen at their bedsides in our military hispitals.

Since then, over 17,000 applications for special training and disability payments have been processed on the spot.

This program now operates in 110 military hospitals.

I have directed the Administrator of Veterans Affairs immediately to expand the program to the entire system of military hospitals.

Veterans Administration counseling is also now in operation at 150 military separation points.

I have directed the Administrator to extend this program to all 257 such centers.

Through these expanded services in hospitals and separation centers, the Veterans Administration can reach more than 70,000 servicemen each month.

The remaining task is to make certain all veterans are reached once they have returned to their communities.

Consider the man who comes home today. His Government has made a vast array of programs available to him. But what effect are the programs if he cannot find them? And in our major cities, where facilities are often scattered across widely-separated areas, this is a serious problem-particularly for those who need the programs the most.

The answer, I believe, lies in an effort we have never tried before for our veterans the one-stop center. I believe we should locate in one place the offices where a veteran can receive personal attention and counsel on all the benefits the law provides him-from housing to health, from education to employment.

I have today ordered that U.S. Assistance Centers be opened in 10 major cities within the coming month. These cities are New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Detroit, Cleveland, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Boston and Atlanta. I propose to have one-stop centers in 10 other cities as soon as possibleBaltimore, Milwaukee, Houston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, San Antonio, New Orleans, Indianapolis, Phoenix and Newark.

Based on the experience gained in these 20 pilot locations, we look forward to establishing one-stop centers in other cities.

We will seek and welcome participation in these centers by State and local officials, and by community organizations engaged in helping the veteran.

Military Programs

JOBS AND TRAINING

A man who has fought for his country deserves gratitude. But gratitude can be no substitute for the job he wants-and needs.

Particularly is it necessary to assure job opportunities to the veteran who has received few other advantages from life. It is this man who must be the focus of our concern and our attention.

We are beginning.

We are helping him as he enters the Armed Forces-through Project 100,000— and as he prepares to muster out-in Project Transition.

Project 100,000 extends the responsibilities of citizenship and the benefits of military training to young men who would otherwise be rejected because of educational or physical limitations.

This program was launched at my direction by the Secretary of Defense in late 1966.

In the first year, almost 50,000 disadvantaged young Americans were prepared in Army classrooms and clinics to take their place in basic training.

The results of their special training speak in these statistics :

96 percent graduated from basic training, almost the same rate for all trainees,

Some have gone on to Non-Commissioned Officer schools.

All have gained self-confidence and a sense of achievement which will serve them all the years of their lives.

I have asked the Secretary of Defense to enroll 100,000 men in this vital program during its second year.

Project Transition gives a boost to disadvantaged men in the six months before they return to civilian life.

Men without civilian skills and without education receive a concentrated program of preparation. In classrooms and at work benches, through counseling and job placement services, they are prepared for the road home.

I have asked the Secretary of Defense to extend Project Transition-proven in practice at five bases last year-to all principal troop installations in the United States. Our target is to reach 500,000 servicemen in the year ahead and then follow their progress in civilian life.

Federal-State Employment Offices

Last year I was disturbed to learn that some veterans returning from service to their country had such difficulty finding jobs they had to rely on unemployment compensation.

This ought to be corrected.

To correct it, in August I directed the Secretary of Labor to give every returning veteran maximum assistance in obtaining useful and rewarding employment. Since that time, a system has been set up which operates in every State, through the network of more than 2,000 Federal-State Employment offices. That system has now made the names and addresses of 230,000 returning veterans available to Employment offices for personal contact.

The Secretary of Labor recently told me that early reports from the men, their parents, and Veterans Organizations show the program is achieving good results. It is important that those results continue. It is in America's interest that this program succeed.

Civil Service

The Federal Government has long set an example for the rest of the nation as a good employer of veterans. Veteran's preference is deeply imbedded in our Civil Service system.

But I am convinced that the Federal Government can be even a better employer.

Last month I asked the Chairman of the Civil Service Commission to develop an action plan to accomplish this purpose.

That plan is now completed.

I will shortly sign an Executive Order putting the plan into effect.

Its major impact will reach the veteran who needs experience, skill and education. He will be hired on a priority basis to fill jobs open in the first five levels of the Civil Service, without having to compete in the regular examination-provided he agrees to pursue a part-time educational program under the GI Bill. This plan will also help veterans with technical or professional skills who want to work in the middle and upper Civil Service levels. Their applications will be given immediate attention.

Veterans In Industry

Most veterans, of course, will go into private industry-where six out of every seven Americans are employed.

Those returning to old jobs have rights protected under the law.

Those seeking new employment-or their first jobs-sometimes find the road difficult.

These young Americans, who have done so much for their country, merit the special consideration of the private employer.

That consideration cannot be imposed by Government decree nor should it. It is appropriate, however-particularly in these times when men are being called from their civilian pursuits to defend their country-for leaders of the Government to express their hope that right will be done to those who serve. To help enlarge the opportunities for veterans' employment, I urge the enactment of a joint resolution expressing the sense of the Congress that private employers should give job priority to our returning servicemen.

Our objective is to make sure that every serviceman who returns to civilian life today and in the months ahead-no matter where he lives, what background he might have come from, what his hopes and ambitions are will have the education he wants, the training he needs, and the opportunities for the job he is best suited for.

With the proposals I have outlined in this Message, I believe we can advance toward that day.

VETERANS IN PUBLIC SERVICE

If the veteran needs his country's help, the country needs his more.

The veteran of Valley Forge knew better than most the value of the nation he was building.

The veteran of Antietam knew better than most the value of the Union he helped to heal and save.

The veteran of the battles that rage across the mountains and lowlands of Vietnam today knows better than most the value of the freedom he preserves. That man is an asset beyond measure to his nation.

Wherever we can, we should containue to enlist him-in service to his community, when military duty is over.

To do this, I propose the Veterans In the Public Service Act of 1968.

This measure will provide incentives to channel the talents of the veteran to the most urgent needs of rural and urban America today:

To teach the children of the poor;

To help man understrength police forces and fire departments;

To do meaningful work in local hospitals, where skills are short;

To fill the ranks of VISTA, to work in Youth Opportunity Centers and in the Concentrated Employment Program.

The pattern of benefits will vary, depending on the individual and the occupation pursued.

Here is an example of how the program will work for the veteran who wants to teach in a deprived area:

While he is getting the schooling that will qualify him for teaching, he will draw additional benefits of $50 a month for every month he agrees to teach-up to three years of such extra benefits.

While he is actually on the job teaching, he will draw a special training allowance, in addition to his regular salary-$80 a month for the first school year, $60 a month for the second.

Should he decide to pursue a graduate degree while he is still teaching, he could-by continuing to teach beyond the second year--earn additional GI Bill educational benefits.

To launch this program, I have included $50 million in the Fiscal 1969 budget.

THE HEALING WORK

The Veterans Administration operates the nation's largest medical complex166 hospitals and their related clinics across the country.

Last year, these hospitals and clinics treated almost 800,000 bed patients. Nearly 7 million veterans received outpatient care.

Their treatment is of the best quality modern medicine can provide—and it is improving with greater advances in pre-hospital and post-hospital care.

But VA medicine not only serves the veteran. Its benefits extend to the entire nation.

In research, VA doctors have pioneered in such vital work as heart disease, cancer, mental illness, and organ transplant.

In 1955, no money was spent for VA medical research. Now that amount exceeds $45 million. Its gains make it one of the nation's best investments.

In medical manpower, the Veterans Administration helps to train nearly half of all the doctors who graduate from medical school today.

The number of all medical specialists trained in VA hospitals each year totals some 40,000-including nurses, dentists, and other disciplines ranging from audiologists to social workers, who take their skills to the communities of this country.

There is room in the VA system to train even more.

And there is a pressing need in the nation for more.

I have directed the Administrator of Veterans Affairs to step up the training of medical specialists.

To help overcome the medical manpower shortages in America, and at the same time improve care to America's veterans, our goal will be to train as many as 80,000 specialists a year in the VA system.

THE U.S. VETERANS ADVISORY COMMISSION

Last year, I asked the Administrator of Veterans Affairs-in consultation with veterans' groups-to conduct a comprehensive study of the pension, compensation and benefits system for veterans, their families and their survivors.