Veterans' Compensation, Education, and Employment Amendments of 1982

(House agreed to Senate amendments with amendments) Veterans' Compensation, Education, and Employment Amendments of 1982 - Title I: Compensation and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Rate Increases and Program Improvements - Part A: Rate Increases - Increases the rates of: (1) disability compensation; (2) additional compensation for dependents; (3) the clothing allowance for certain disabled veterans; (4) dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses; (5) dependency and indemnity compensation for children; and (6) supplemental dependency and indemnity compensation for children. Amends the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1982 to repeal an earlier rate adjustment. Part B: Program Improvements - Entitles veterans with service-connected, total blindness without light perception in both eyes to the same rate of monthly disability compensation as is paid for the anatomical loss of both eyes. Entitles to an increased rate of monthly compensation veterans with service-connected anatomical loss or loss of use of a hand or a foot. Extends dependency and indemnity compensation to survivors of veterans who were entitled to but did not receive service-connected disability compensation. Includes within the term "active duty for training" annual training duty performed by a member of a Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program as ordered for field training or a practice cruise. Title II: Educational Assistance - Permits the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to station veterans benefits counselors at locations other than Veterans' Administration offices. Eliminates the requirement that a vocational school prove 50 percent employment among its graduates to prevent the Administrator's disapproving a veteran's enrollment. Prohibits the Administrator from approving the enrollment of an eligible veteran or person in any sales or sales management course which does not provide specialized training. Permits enrollment of veterans in a farm cooperative training course. Limits the educational assistance allowance for a veteran pursuing an independent study program to no more than the less than half-time rate. Prohibits the payment of benefits, other than cost of supplies, for courses given without charge. Permits the payment of educational assistance to veterans pursuing a program of education or training while incarcerated in prison as specified. Requires rather than permits the Administrator to extend educational assistance for vocational or on-the-job training to certain Vietnam era veterans through December 31, 1984. Permits the Administration to discontinue educational assistance to eligible veterans and persons enrolled at institutions or in courses with uncorrected violations of specified requirements. Lessens the detail required in the Administrator's annual report to Congress on the default of educational loans. Provides for the transfer of funds from the Secretary of a military department to the Administrator for the administration of an educational assistance program. Increases from $75 to $100 the maximum monthly deduction from a person's military pay for contributions to a matching fund for educational assistance. Title III: Employment Assistance - Requires that eligible veterans and persons be given priority in the provision of employment and training services. Makes officials within the Department of Labor who help administer this program responsible to the Assistant Secretary. Changes the position of State veterans' employment representative to that of State Director for Veterans' Employment. Assigns to each State a State Director for Veterans' Employment. Makes such directors functionally responsible for supervising the participation of veterans in Federal employment and training programs, job listings, discrimination complaints, and other specified duties. Requires that funds used to assist States in administering the disabled veterans' outreach program be specifically set forth in appropriation Acts. Permits a waiver of limitation on the percentage of outreach specialists which shall be stationed at local employment service offices in a State. Requires outreach specialists to develop programs with the Veterans Administration vocational rehabilitation staff and others to assure maximum assistance to veterans. Directs the Assistant Secretary to monitor the employment of such specialists. Directs the Secretary of Labor to estimate the funds necessary for the administration of the employment training and reemployment rights programs, including the amounts necessary to fund the disabled veterans' outreach program specialists programs. Requires the Secretary's annual report to include a report on activities under such program. Directs the Secretary, through the Assistant Secretary, to establish a program providing job counseling, training, and placement services for veterans through grants to State agencies and private, nonprofit organizations. Encourages such agencies to make cooperative arrangements with industry. Directs the Secretary to coordinate this program with other veterans' job training programs and to determine the effectiveness of an agency in providing services under this program. Permits the Secretary to furnish technical assistance as necessary. Directs the Secretary to report annually to the Veterans' Affairs Committees of Congress on the conduct of this program. Establishes within the Department of Labor the Secretary's Committee on Veterans' Affairs to meet quarterly to bring veterans' employment problems to the attention of the Secretary. Extends eligibility for the employment and training programs for disabled and Vietnam-era veterans to include persons who, but for the receipt of military retired pay, would be eligible to receive compensation. Requires each Federal contractor who must take affirmative action to employ such veterans to make quarterly reports on the number and characteristics of new hires with the State veterans' employment director. Requires each Federal department and agency to list openings with a local employment service office, which shall give veterans priority in referral. Requires the Office of Personnel Management to publish a report which includes the number of openings and the number of veterans who were referred to and/or received a job. Repeals the exemplary rehabilitation certificates program. Title IV: Miscellaneous Provisions - Eliminates the four year cut-off for payment of claims under the Servicemen's Group Life Insurance and Veterans' Group Life Insurance programs. Prohibits the escheat of payments to the State. Directs the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to furnish a flag for burial (and subsequent retention by the next of kin) for persons designated by the Administrator as eligible for burial in a national cemetery. Directs the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to pay the burial expenses of certain veterans of war whose bodies are held by a State and not claimed. Eliminates the requirement that the superintendent of a national cemetery under the jurisdiction of the Army be a disabled veteran. Permits the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to guarantee a loan to refinance an existing loan for the purchase of a manufactured home or the lot on which such home will be placed. Requires applications for recovery of payments or overpayments of benefits under laws administered by the Veterans' Administration to be made within 180 days rather than within two years. Modifies the minimum service requirement for the receipt of veterans' benefits by a veteran or his survivor or dependent. Prohibits the contracting out of veterans' medical care unless such activity is not a direct patient care activity or incident to such activity, and to contract out would be more cost-effective. Permits the Administrator to contract out for such activity after performing a cost-effectiveness study which would be promptly submitted to the appropriate congressional committees. Directs the Administrator to submit an annual report to Congress on the extent to which activities at Veterans' Administration health-care facilities have been contracted out.

(Measure passed Senate, amended, in lieu of S. 2913) Veterans' Compensation, Education, and Employment Amendments of 1982 - Title I: Compensation and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Rate Increases and Program Improvements - Increases the rates of: (1) disability compensation; (2) additional compensation for dependents; (3) the clothing allowance for for certain disabled veterans; (4) dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses; (5) dependency and indemnity compensation for children; and (6) supplemental dependency and indemnity compensation for children. Entitles veterans with service-connected total blindness without light perception in both eyes to the same rate of monthly compensation as is paid for the anatomical loss of both eyes. Extends dependency and indemnity compensation to survivors of veterans who were entitled to but because of error did not receive service-connected disability compensation. Supersedes specified provisions of the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1982 concerning compensation. Title II: Amendments of Veterans' Education and Rehabilitation Programs - Permits the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to station veterans benefits counselors at locations other than Veterans' Administration offices, including schools. Permits the payment of a subsistence allowance to a veteran pursuing a rehabilitation program while residing in a halfway house or participating in a work-release program. Increases from $75 to $100 the maximum monthly deduction from a persons military pay for contribution to a matching fund for educational assistance. Provides for the transfer of funds from the Secretary of a military department to the Administrator for the administration of an educational assistance program. Repeals the ten year delimiting period for the use of educational assistance for veterans who are dishcarged or released from duty after December 31, 1979. Directs the Secretary of Defense to reimburse the Administrator for educational assistance paid out after December 31, 1989. Eliminates the requirement that a vocational school prove 50 percent employment among its graduates to prevent the Administrator's disapproving a veteran's enrollment. Prohibits the Administrator from approving the enrollment of an eligible veteran or person in any sales or sales management course which does not provide specialized training. Prohibits the payment of anything but a books and supplies allowance for non-tuition courses. Permits the Administrator to discontinue educational assistance to eligible veterans and persons enrolled at institutions or in courses with uncorrected violations of specified requirements. Lessens the detail required in the Administrator's annual report to Congress on the default of educational loans. Tolls the delimiting period for any veteran prevented from participating in a vocational rehabilitation program because of an alcohol or drug dependence or abuse condition. Requires (at present, only permits) the Administrator to provide educational assistance to Vietnam era veterans in apprenticeship or on-the-job training programs, or in courses with approved vocational objectives, unless a particular veteran does not need such a program or course to obtain suitable and stable employment. Requires publication in the Federal Register of proposed regulations implementing this requirement within 30 days after enactment of this Act. Title III: Veterans Employment Amendment - Requires that priority in jobs training programs be given to disabled and Vietnam era, veterans. Changes the position of State veterans' employment representative to that of State Director Veterans' Employment. Makes such directors functionally responsible for supervising the participation of veterans in Federal employment and training programs, job listings, discrimination complaints, and other specified duties. Requires the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Veterans' Employment to supervise the use of funds in the disabled veterans' outreach program. Permits a waiver of limitation on the percentage of outreach specialists which shall be stationed at local employment service offices in a State. Requires outreach socialists to develop programs with the Veterans Administration vocational rehabilitation staff and others to assure maximum assistance to veterans. Directs the Assistant Secretary to monitor the employment of such specialists. Directs the Secretary of Labor to estimate the funds necessary for the administration of the employment training and reemployment rights programs, including the amounts necessary to fund the disabled veterans' outreach program specialists. Requires the Secretary's annual report to include a report on actitivities under such program. Requires each Federal contractor who must take affirmative action to employ such veterans to make annual reports on the number and characteristics of new hires with the state veterans' employment director. Directs the Secretary, through the Assistant Secretary, to assist in the placement of veterans using existing Federal and State agencies. Repeals the exemplary rehabilitation certificates program. Title IV: Miscellaneous Improvements - Sets forth the conditions under which the assignee of a beneficiary of a National Service Life Insurance policy or a U.S. Government Life Insurance policy may resolve disputes concerning the proceeds. Eliminates the four year cut-off payment of claims under the Servicemen's Group Life Insurance and Veterans' Group Life Insurance programs. Prohibits the escheat of payments to the State. Directs the Administrator to pay the burial expenses of certain veterans of war whose bodies are held by a State and not claimed. Permits the Administrator to guarantee a loan to refinance an existing loan for the purchase of a manufactured home or the lot on which such home will be placed. Requires applications for recovery of payments or overpayments of benefits under laws administered by the Veterans' Administration to be made within 180 days rather than within two years. Modifies the minimum service requirement for the receipt of veterans' benefits by a veteran or his survivor or dependent. Permits the pursuit of correspondence training as specified. Prohibits the contracting out of veterans' medical care unless a particular medical care activity is not a direct patient care activity or incident to direct patient care and to contract out would be more cost-effective. Directs the Administrator to reimburse specified veterans for the costs of chiropractic treatment of a service-connected neuromusculoskeletal condition of the spine. Title V: Effective Dates - Sets forth effective dates for the provisions of this Act.

(Measure passed House, amended, roll call #215 (400-0)) Veterans Disability Compensation and Survivors' Benefits Amendments of 1982 - Title I: Compensation and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Rate Increases - Increases the rates of: (1) disability compensation; (2) additional compensation for dependents; (3) the clothing allowance for certain disabled veterans; (4) dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses; (5) dependency and indemnity compensation for children; and (6) supplemental dependency and indemnity compensation for children. Title II Program Changes - Includes within the term "active duty for training" annual training duty performed by a member of a Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program as ordered for 14 or more days. Entitles veterans with service-connected, total blindness without light perception in both eyes to the same rate of monthly disability compensation as is paid for the anatomical loss of both eyes. Entitles to an increased rate of monthly compensation veterans with service-connected anatomical loss or loss of use of a hand or a foot. Requires that additional compensation for dependents be adjusted downward to the nearest dollar. Extends dependency and indemnity compensation to survivors of veterans who were entitled to but did not receive service-connected disability compensation. Eliminates the four year cut-off for payment of claims under the Servicemen's Group Life Insurance and Veterans' Group Life Insurance programs. Prohibits the escheat of payments to the State. Directs the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to furnish a flag for burial (and subsequent retention by the next of kin) for persons designated by the Administrator as eligible for burial in a national cemetery. Directs the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to pay the burial expenses of certain veterans of war whose bodies are held by a State and not claimed. Eliminates the requirement that the superintendent of a national cemetery under the jurisdiction of the Army be a disabled veteran. Requires that activities at Veterans Administration directed medical facilities be carried out by Federal employees, except as specified. Title III: Budget Savings Provisions - Veterans' Budget Reconciliation Act of 1982 - Requires veterans to pay a loan fee on guaranteed home loans. Establishes periods of commencement for payments based on an award of compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension. Sets forth a formula for determining the amount of payments under the Veterans' and Survivors' Pension Improvement Act of 1978 by rounding pensions to the next lower dollar. Extends the entitlement of children of veterans who are under 18 to such children who are not yet 19 but pursuing a high school degree and children over 18 who are not pursuing such a degree but who before reaching 18 become permanently incapable of self-support. Reduces the amount of pension receivable during the summer months for the students. Amends the Post-Vietnam Era Veterans' Educational Assistance Program to terminate the entitlement of such veterans and of spouses and surviving spouses to pursue exclusively correspondence training under such program.

(Reported to House from the Committee on Veterans Affairs with amendment, H. Rept. 97-660) Veterans Disability Compensation and Survivors' Benefits Amendments of 1982 - Title I: Compensation and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Rate Increases - Increases the rates of: (1) disability compensation; (2) additional compensation for dependents; (3) the clothing allowance for certain disabled veterans; (4) dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses; (5) dependency and indemnity compensation for children; and (6) supplemental dependency and indemnity compensation for children. Title II Program Changes - Includes within the term "active duty for training" annual training duty performed by a member of a Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program as ordered for 14 or more days. Entitles veterans with service-connected, total blindness without light perception in both eyes to the same rate of monthly disability compensation as is paid for the anatomical loss of both eyes. Entitles to an increased rate of monthly compensation veterans with service-connected anatomical loss or loss of use of a hand or a foot. Requires that additional compensation for dependents be adjusted downward to the nearest dollar. Extends dependency and indemnity compensation to survivors of veterans who were entitled to but did not receive service-connected disability compensation. Eliminates the four year cut-off for payment of claims under the Servicemen's Group Life Insurance and Veterans' Group Life Insurance programs. Prohibits the escheat of payments to the State. Directs the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to furnish a flag for burial (and subsequent retention by the next of kin) for persons designated by the Administrator as eligible for burial in a national cemetery. Directs the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to pay the burial expenses of certain veterans of war whose bodies are held by a State and not claimed. Eliminates the requirement that the superintendent of a national cemetery under the jurisdiction of the Army be a disabled veteran. Requires that activities at Veterans Administration directed medical facilities be carried out by Federal employees, except as specified. Title III: Budget Savings Provisions - Veterans' Budget Reconciliation Act of 1982 - Requires veterans to pay a loan fee on guaranteed home loans. Establishes periods of commencement for payments based on an award of compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension. Sets forth a formula for determining the amount of payments under the Veterans' and Survivors' Pension Improvement Act of 1978 by rounding pensions to the next lower dollar. Extends the entitlement of children of veterans who are under 18 to such children who are not yet 19 but pursuing a high school degree and children over 18 who are not pursuing such a degree but who before reaching 18 become permanently incapable of self-support. Reduces the amount of pension receivable during the summer months for the students. Amends the Post-Vietnam Era Veterans' Educational Assistance Program to terminate the entitlement of such veterans and of spouses and surviving spouses to pursue exclusively correspondence training under such program.

Veterans Disability Compensation and Survivors' Benefits Amendments of 1982 - Title I: Compensation and Dependency and Indemnity Compensation Rate Increases - Increases the rates of: (1) disability compensation; (2) additional compensation for dependents; (3) the clothing allowance for certain disabled veterans; (4) dependency and indemnity compensation for surviving spouses; (5) dependency and indemnity compensation for children; and (6) supplemental dependency and indemnity compensation for children. Title II Program Changes - Includes within the term "active duty for training" annual training duty performed by a member of a Senior Reserve Officers' Training Corps program as ordered for 14 or more days. Entitles veterans with service-connected, total blindness without light perception in both eyes to the same rate of monthly disability compensation as is paid for the anatomical loss of both eyes. Entitles to an increased rate of monthly compensation veterans with service-connected anatomical loss or loss of use of a hand or of a foot. Requires that additional compensation for dependents be adjusted downward to the nearest dollar. Extends dependency and indemnity compensation to survivors of veterans who were entitled to but did not receive service-connected disability compensation. Eliminates the four year cut-off for payment of claims under the Servicemen's Group Life Insurance and Veterans' Group Life Insurance programs. Prohibits the escheat of payments to the State. Directs the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to furnish a flag for burial (and subsequent retention by the next of kin) for persons designated by the Administrator as eligible for burial in a national cemetery. Directs the Administrator of Veterans' Affairs to pay the burial expenses of certain veterans of war whose bodies are held by a State and not claimed. Eliminates the requirement that the superintendent of a national cemetery under the jurisdiction of the Army be a disabled veteran.