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Show Congress Pledges 'No Raids' on Present Veteran Benefits The American Legion has received re-ceived firm assurance that the second session of the 85th Congress Con-gress will "not take one dime from a veteran." These words climaxed a dramatic hearing held by the House Veterans Affairs Af-fairs committee Feb. 25th in Washington, D. C, to receive American Legion testimony and views on 1958 veteran legislation legisla-tion and the future of the entire V A hospital and medical program. pro-gram. The words were those of Olin E. Teague of Texas, chairman of the committee, after National Commander John . S. Gleason, Jr., and National Rehabilitation Chairman Robert M. McCurdy had completed a two-hour joint presentation on behalf of The American Legion. It was a jam tried., standing- room - only session with more ; than 500 American Legion de-I de-I partment and post service of-: of-: i'icers and rehabilitation leaders from all parts of the country attending. "You have nothing to fear from this session of the Congress," Con-gress," Chairman Teague declared. de-clared. "This committee is very sympathetic. You need have no fear as to what will happen to the veteran program. This assurance as-surance was greeted with prolonged pro-longed applause from the assembled assem-bled Legionnaires. Chairman Teague's declaration declara-tion was supported by statements state-ments of members of his committee. com-mittee. Rep. James A. Haley of Florida Flor-ida slated, "I think The American Ameri-can Legion can stop worrying about the Bradley report. I don't think it will get anywhere in this Congress - and it shouldn't." should-n't." Congressman John P. Saylor of Pennsylvania said, "Putting the dollar sign on disabled veterans vet-erans is the last thing this committe wants." He expressed the committee's concern over what he called the "daily violation vi-olation of two major presumptions presump-tions to which veterans are entitled." en-titled." The first presumptioln, hje pointed out, is that a man or woman taken into service who passed the medical examination of induction is supposed to have entered the service in a fit condition. con-dition. The second presumption is that a veteran in presenting a claim is entitled to have any reasonable doubt resolved in his favor. Representative Saylor also asserted it is not the intention of .Congress that veteran pen sions should be deducted from , Social Security benifits. "Social ( Security is something you have - paid for," he said. "A pension is something you have earned." Commander Gleason said Congressional action this year will involve : 1. Legislation to improve ex-j ex-j isting inequities. 2. Defense of the present program pro-gram of veteran benefits, including in-cluding hospital and medical care, against attacks from without with-out and within the government, designed to curtail or eliminate essential elements of this program. pro-gram. He asked the committee to accomplish tl42se objectives : 1. Revitalization and effective effect-ive operation of the home loan guaranty program, j 2. Action to assure that funds appropriated by the Congress for the V A hospital and medical program, including construction construc-tion rind maintenance of hospitals hos-pitals and medical facilities, are mlly used. Rehabilitation Chairman McCurdy Mc-Curdy outlined to the committee commit-tee in simple but forceful language lan-guage how the program of hospital hos-pital and medical care and veteran vet-eran benefits was being whittled whit-tled away by some who were usurping the committee's powers and thwarting the will of Congress. Con-gress. He sketched delays by the Bureau of the Budget in putting into use funds appropriated by the Congress for V A hospital construction and maintenance. He hit at the present review of compensation cases and disability dis-ability ratings by boards "down whose necks somebody was breathing" to reverse former decisions, to slash ratings and payments and to violate the presumption pre-sumption that every veteran was entitled to have a reasonable doubt resolved in his favor. He exposed the penny - wise, pound - foolish and health - imperiling im-periling policy of cutting down on T B beds and care at a time when the "incidence of this white plague was on the rise." Pie emphasized the local cost that ensued of caring for patients pat-ients with only arrested cases. He deplored the "cold -war" which administration sources have been waging against the entire veteran program with vicious rumors of evil things to come. |
