FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF BIOMEDICAL SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS: SEC. [399.] 398. (a) In order to enable the [Surgeon General] Secretary to carry out the purposes of section 390 (b) (7), there are hereby authorized to be appropriated for each fiscal year, beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, [1966,] 1971, and ending with the fiscal year ending June 30, [1970], 1973, such sums, not to exceed $1,000,000 for any fiscal year, as may be necessary. Sums made available under this section shall be utilized by the [Surgeon General] Secretary, with the advice of the Board, in making grants to, and entering into appropriate contracts with, public or private nonprofit institutions of higher education and individual scientists for the purpose of supporting biomedical scientific publications of a nonprofit nature and to procure the compilation, writing, editing, and publication of reviews, abstracts, indices, handbooks, bibliog raphies, and related matter pertaining to scientific works and scientific developments. (b) Grants under this section in support of any single periodical publication may not be made for more than three years. (c) Payment pursuant to grants made under this section may be made in advance or by way of reimbursement and in such installments as the Surgeon General shall prescribe by regulations after consultation with the Board. CONTINUING AVAILABILITY OF APPROPRIATED FUNDS SEC. [399a.] 399. Funds appropriated to carry out any of the purposes of this part for any fiscal year shall remain available for such purposes for the fiscal year immediately following the fiscal year for which they were appropriated. Funds appropriated under this part for grants for construction shall remain available until expended. RECORDS AND AUDIT SEC. [399b.] 399a. (a) Each recipient of a grant under this part. shall keep such records as the Surgeon General shall prescribe, including records which fully disclose the amount and disposition by such recipient of the proceeds of such grant, the total cost of the project or undertaking in connection with which such grant is given or used, and the amount of that portion of the cost of the project or undertaking supplied by other sources, and such other records as will facilitate an effective audit. (b) The Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare and the Comptroller General of the United States, or any of their duly authorized representatives, shall have access for the purpose of audit and examination to any books, documents, papers, and records of such recipients that are pertinent to any grant received under the provisions of this part. SEC. 399b. (a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this part, whenever there is appropriated any amount for any fiscal year (beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1971) to carry out any particular program or activity authorized by this part, the Secretary shall have the authority to transfer sums from such amount, for the purpose of carrying out one or more of the other programs or activities authorized by their part; except that— (1) the aggregate of the sums so transferred from any such amount shall not exceed 10 per centum thereof, (2) the aggregate of the sums so transferred to carry out any such program or activity for any fiscal year shall not exceed 20 per centum of the amount appropriated to carry out such program or activity for such year, and (3) sums may not be transferred for any fiscal year to carry out any such program or activity if such transfer would result in there being available (from appropriated funds plus the sums so transferred) to carry out such program or activity for such year amounts in excess of the amounts authorized to be appropriated for such year to carry out such program or activity. (b) Any sums transferred pursuant to subsection (a) for any fiscal year for the purpose of carrying out any program or activity shall remain available for such purpose to the same extent as are funds which are specifically appropriated for such purpose for such year. OCTOBER 17, 1969.-—Ordered to be printed Filed under authority of the order of the Senate of OCTOBER 16, 1969 Mr. CRANSTON, from the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H.R. 693] The Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, to which was referred the bill (H.R. 693) to amend title 38 of the United States Code to provide that veterans who are seventy-two years of age or older shall be deemed to be unable to defray the expenses of necessary hospital or domiciliary care, and for other purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with amendments and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass. COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS On page 1, line 7, and page 2, lines 1 through 5, strike out Administrator may not require any statement under oath from an applicant referred to therein who is seventy-two years of age or older for the purpose of determining inability to defray necessary expenses, and such applicant shall be deemed to be unable to defray the expenses of necessary hospital or domiciliary care and insert in lieu thereof the following: receipt of pension under any law administered by the Vet- sary expenses. On page 2, line 24, and page 3, lines 1 through 23, strike out: SEC. 4. Subsection (a) of section 610 of title 38, United States Code, is amended (1) by striking out "and" at the end of clause (2); (2) by striking out the period at the end of clause (3) and 37-010 O inserting in lieu thereof "; and"; and (3) by adding at the end thereof the following: "(4) any veteran for a non-service-connected disability if such veteran served in the active military or naval service in Mexico, on the borders thereof, or in the waters adjacent thereto during the period beginning on May 9, 1916, and ending on April 6, 1917." SEC. 5. (a) The provisions of section 201 of the Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968 shall not apply with respect to employees of the Veterans' Administration and such employees shall not be taken into account in applying the provisions of such section to the other departments and agencies of the executive branch. (b) Section 4 of the Act entitled "An Act to amend title 38 of the United States Code to provide nursing home care and contract hospitalization for certain veterans living in Alaska and Hawaii, and for other purposes," approved October 21, 1968 (Public Law 90-612, 82 Stat. 1202), is hereby repealed. (c) Subsections (a) and (b) of this section shall take effect on the date of the enactment of this Act. The purpose of the amendment to section 1 is to substitute a receipt. of pension test for an age test in exempting non-service-connected veterans from having to subscribe to the oath of inability to defray necessary expense for purposes of receiving hospital or domiciliary care at Veterans' Administration expense. The reasons for the change are explained in detail below. Section 4 of the House-passed bill was struck from the bill because the committee did not find sufficient justification for extending to veterans of active duty in the Mexican border service full hospital and outpatient medical care in connection with any non-serviceconnected disability regardless of their economic status. Since 1900, U.S. forces have been involved in a number of other campaigns and no similar benefits have ever been extended to veterans of those campaigns. Section 5 of the House-passed bill was struck since the personnel ceiling on Veterans' Administration employment imposed by section 201 of the Revenue and Expenditure Control Act of 1968 (Public Law 90-364) has already been repealed by section 503 of the Second Supplemental Appropriation Act of 1969 (Public Law 91-47). INTRODUCTION The Subcommittee on Veterans' Affairs conducted hearings on H.R. 693 on July 17, 1969. Testimony was presented by spokesmen of the administration, veterans' organizations, and by U.S. Senators. In executive session on October 2, 1969, the subcommittee considered H.R. 693 and unanimously ordered it reported to the full Labor and Public Welfare Committee. The Committee on Labor and Public Welfare met in executive session on October 9, 1969, at which time H.R. 693 was unanimously approved and ordered reported. EXPLANATION OF THE BILL Section 1 of the bill would provide that a veteran who is in receipt of a Veterans' Administration pension would no longer be required to sign, under oath, a statement of inability to defray the necessary expenses of hospital or domiciliary care in order to gain admission to a Veterans' Administration hospital for a non-service-connected disability. Presently, veterans with service-connected disabilities are admitted to Veterans' Administration hospitals and domiciliaries as a matter of right; but non-service-connected veterans must complete an oath of inability to defray necessary expenses, which under 38 U.S.C. § 622 is required to be accepted by the Veterans' Administration as sufficient evidence of such inability. The oath form which nonservice-connected veterans must complete also includes a number of questions regarding financial data. Although under present Veterans' Administration practice veterans receiving non-service-connected pensions need not complete the financial data items, they are still required to swear or affirm to the oath. The committee believes that such an oath is entirely superfluous for such pensioners whose financial need has already been verified for pension purposes The House-passed bill premised the exemption on an age test (72 years or older), thereby eliminating a needs test for care for nonservice-connected conditions of such veterans. The committee's amendment to substitute a pension test would apply to considerably more veterans than the age test. Based on the number of VA patients discharged from VA and non-VA hospitals in 1968, the age test would exempt from taking the oath 110,056 non-service-connected veterans who were 72 years or older. Based on these same figures, the amended section 1 using a pension test would cover 194,869 such non-serviceconnected veterans and would fail to cover only 17,232 non-serviceconnected veterans 72 years of age and over who were not in receipt of pensions. Thus, the pension yardstick would apply to 84,813 individual veterans whose neediness had clearly been established and who would not be covered by the age test, and would extend coverage to approximately 67,581 more veterans than the House-passed provision. Whereas the House-passed measure would have an estimated first-year cost of $1,825,000-since it is expected that some veterans 72 years or older presently unwilling or unable to subscribe to the oath would receive Veterans' Administration hospital or domiciliary care-the pension test adopted by the committee would entail no additional expenditures. The committee also gave considerable attention to the form of the oath and income questions. The present oath form (VA form 10-P-10 (November 1966)) is as follows: |