portion of the subsection beginning with the words "and each such employer" and continuing to the end of the subsection, the following: "and each employer other than a subordinate unit of a national railway-labor-organization employer shall be liable for that proportion of the contribution with respect to such compensation paid by all such employers which the compensation paid by him after December 31, 1946, to the employee for services during any calendar month after 1946 bears to the total compensation paid by all such employers after December 31, 1946, to such employee for services rendered during such month; and in the event that the compensation so paid by such employers to the employee for services rendered during such month is less than $300, each subordinate unit of a national railway-labor-organization employer shall be liable for such proportion of any additional contribution as the compensation paid by such employer after December 31, 1946, to such employee for services rendered during such month bears to the total compensation paid by all such employers after December 31, 1946, to such employee for services rendered during such month."

(b) Subsection (h) of section 8 of the Railroad Unemployment Insurance Act, as amended, is amended to read as follows:

"(h) All provisions of law, including penalties, applicable with respect to any tax imposed by section 1800 or 2700 of the Internal Revenue Code, and the provisions of section 3661 of such code, insofar as applicable and not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, shall be applicable with respect to the contributions required by this Act: Provided, That all authority and functions conferred by or pursuant to such provisions upon any officer or employee of the United States, except the authority to institute and prosecute, and the function of instituting and prosecuting, criminal proceedings, shall, with respect to such contributions, be vested in and exercised by the Board or such officers and employees of the Board as it may designate therefor." SEC. 319. Subsection 12 (b) is amended by inserting after the phrase "being carried on in the District of Columbia," the phrase "or the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois, if the investigation or proceeding is being carried on in the Northern District of Illinois,"; and by inserting before the phrase "in such proceedings may run" the phrase "or of the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois".

and

SEC. 320. Subsection 12 (f) is amended by changing the phrases "unemployment-compensation laws", "unemployment benefits", "unemployment-compensation law" to "unemployment-compensation, sickness, or maternity laws", "unemployment, sickness, or maternity benefits", and "unemployment-compensation, sickness, or maternity law", respectively.

SEC. 321. Subsection 12 (g) is amended by inserting after the word "unemployment", each time it appears, the phrase sickness, or maternity", and by striking out the phrase with respect to unemployment after June 30, 1939,".

SEC. 322. Subsection 12 (i) is amended by inserting the following paragraph between the second and third paragraphs thereof:

"The Board shall provide a form or forms for statements of sickness and a procedure for the execution and filing thereof. Such forms and procedure shall be designed with a view to having such

statements provide substantial evidence of the days of sickness of the employee and, in the case of maternity sickness, the expected date of birth and the actual date of birth of the child. Such statements may be executed by any doctor (authorized to practice in the State or foreign jurisdiction in which he practices his profession) or any officer or supervisory employee of a hospital, clinic, group health association, or other similar organization, who is qualified under such regulations as the Board may prescribe to execute such statements. The Board shall issue regulations for the qualification of such persons to execute such statements. When so executed by any such person, or, in the discretion of the Board, by others designated by the Board individually or by groups, they may be accepted as initial proof of days of sickness sufficient to certify for payment a claim for benefits."

SEC. 323. Section 12 is further amended by adding thereto the following subsections:

"(n) Any employee claiming, entitled to, or receiving sickness benefits under this Act may be required to take such examination, physical, medical, mental, or otherwise, in such manner and at such times and by such qualified individuals, including medical officers or employees of the United States or a State, as the Board may prescribe. The place or places of examination shall be reasonably convenient for the employee. No sickness or maternity benefits shall be payable under this Act with respect to any period during which the employee unreasonably refuses to take or willfully obstructs an examination as prescribed by the Board.

"Any doctor who renders any attendance, treatment, attention, or care, or performs any examination with respect to a sickness of an employee or as to the expected date of birth of a female employee's child, or the birth of such a child, upon which a claim or right to benefits under this Act is based, shall furnish the Board, in such manner and form and at such times as the Board by regulations may prescribe, information and reports relative thereto and to the condition of the employee. An application for sickness or maternity benefits under this Act shall contain a waiver of any doctor-patient privilege that the employee may have with respect to any sickness or maternity period upon which such application is based: Provided, That such information shall not be disclosed by the Board except in a court proceeding relating to any claim for benefits by the employee under this Act.

"The Board may enter into agreements or arrangements with doctors, hospitals, clinics, or other persons for securing the examination, physical, medical, mental, or otherwise, of employees claiming, entitled to, or receiving sickness or maternity benefits under this Act and the performance of services or the use of facilities in connection with the execution of statements of sickness. The Board may compensate any such doctors, hospitals, clinics, or other persons upon such reasonable basis as the Board shall prescribe. Such doctors, hospitals, clinics, or other persons and persons employed by any of them shall not be subject to the Act of Congress approved March 3, 1917 (39 Stat. 1106, ch. 163, sec. 1). In the event that the Board pays for the physical or mental examination of an employee or for the execution of a statement of sickness and such employee's

claim for benefits is based upon such examination or statement, the Board shall deduct from any sickness or maternity benefits payable to the employee pursuant to such claim such amount as, in the judgment of the Board, is a fair and reasonable charge for such examination or execution of such statement.

"(o) Benefits payable to an employee with respect to days of sickness shall be payable regardless of the liability of any person to pay damages for such infirmity. The Board shall be entitled to reimbursement from any sum or damages paid or payable to such employee or other person through suit, compromise, settlement, judgment, or otherwise on account of any liability (other than a liability under a health, sickness, accident, or similar insurance policy) based upon such infirmity, to the extent that it will have paid or will pay benefits for days of sickness resulting from such infirmity. Upon notice to the person against whom such right or claim exists or is asserted, the Board shall have a lien upon such right or claim, any judgment obtained thereunder, and any sum or damages paid under such right or claim, to the extent of the amount to which the Board is entitled by way of reimbursement.

"(p) The Board may, after hearing, disqualify any person from executing statements of sickness who, the Board finds, (i) will have solicited, or will have employed another to solicit, for himself or for another the execution of any such statement, or (ii) will have made false or misleading statements to the Board, to any employer, or_to any employee, in connection with the awarding of any benefits under this Act, or (iii) will have failed to submit medical reports and records required by the Board under this Act, or will have failed to submit any other reports, records, or information required by the Board in connection with the administration of this Act or any other Act heretofore or hereafter administered by the Board, or (iv) will have engaged in any malpractice or other professional misconduct. No fees or charges of any kind shall accrue to any such person from the Board after his disqualification.

"(q) The Board shall engage in and conduct research projects, investigations, and studies with respect to the cause, care, and prevention of, and benefits for, accidents and disabilities and other subjects deemed by the Board to be related thereto, and shall recommend legislation deemed advisable in the light of such research projects, investigations, and studies."

SEC. 324. Subsection 13 (b) is amended by inserting after "1939," in the first, second, and third sentences thereof, "and for the payment of sickness and maternity benefits for sickness or for maternity periods after June 30, 1947,", "or to sickness or maternity benefits under a sickness or maternity law of any State with respect to sickness or to maternity periods occurring after June 30, 1947,", and "or of State sickness or maternity laws after June 30, 1947", respectively.

DIVISION IV

SEC. 401. Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the provisions thereof shall become effective upon approval.

SEC. 402. Section 306 shall become effective on July 1, 1946, and sections 203, 205, 206, 207, 210, 211, 213, and 318 shall become effective on January 1, 1947.

The amendments to section 1532 of the Internal Revenue Code made by sections 1 and 3 (e) and (f) shall be effective only with respect to services rendered after December 31, 1946. The amendments made by section 3 (a), (b), (c), and (d) shall take effect January 1, 1947. Sections 1500, 1510, and 1520 of the Internal Revenue Code as in effect on December 31, 1946, shall remain in full force and effect on and after January 1, 1947, with respect to any remuneration___which constitutes compensation under the law as in effect on December 31, 1946, to which such sections as amended by this Act are not applicable.

SEC. 403. Sections 301, 302, 303, 304, 305 (except for the revision of the table which shall be effective on the date of enactment of this Act), 307, 308, 309, and 310 shall become effective on July 1, 1947.

SEC. 404. Except as hereinafter provided, the rights of persons to whom pensions or annuities were awarded before the date of approval of this Act shall continue to be governed by the provisions of law applicable thereto prior to the approval of this Act. In the award of annuities or increases in annuities after the date of approval of this Act on applications on which no award or a partial award has been made prior to said date, service prior to 1937 (and the compensation therefor) shall be credited only if such service is creditable under the amendments made by section 201. No annuity or increase in annuity so awarded crediting such service shall begin to accrue prior to the date of approval of this Act.

SEC. 405. The election of a joint and survivor annuity made before the date of approval of this Act by an individual to whom an annuity accrues before January 1, 1947, shall be given effect as though the provisions of law under which the election was made had continued to be operative unless no annuity was awarded to such individual prior to the date of approval of this Act and, within one year after the approval of this Act, he revokes the election in such form and manner as the Board may prescribe. Such election by an individual to whom no annuity accrues before January 1, 1947, shall also be given such effect if the individual, before January 1, 1948, reaffirms the election in such form and manner as the Board may prescribe.

SEC. 406. Payments upon death as provided in sections 5 of the Railroad Retirement Acts of 1935 and 1937, other than survivor annuities pursuant to an election, shall be made only with respect to deaths occurring before January 1, 1947.

SEC. 407. An individual to whom an annuity accrued prior to January 1, 1947, and who would as of the date of initial accrual have been entitled to an annuity in a greater amount by reason of the amendments made by section 201, 202, 205, or 210 had such amendments been in effect at the date of initial accrual (or, in the case of a survivor annuity, at the date of initial accrual of the annuity from which it derives), shall, without further application therefor other than a statement of any service claimed under section 202, be awarded an annuity in such greater amount beginning as of the date the applicable amendment shall have become operative: Provided, however, That, in such award service before 1937 (and the compensation therefor) shall not be credited if such service would not be creditable upon application of all the amendments made by this Act. In determinations made pursuant to this section any individual to whom an annuity

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based on not less than five years of service accrues before January 1, 1947, shall be deemed to have a "current connection with the railroad industry". If an annuity increased pursuant to this section is a joint and survivor annuity, the increase shall be in the same form, the actuarial value being computed as of the date the increase begins, unless on that date there is no spouse living for whom the election was made, in which case the increase shall be awarded on a single life basis. If the increase herein provided effects a survivor annuity only, the increase shall be so determined as to bear the same ratio to the survivor annuity, as the increase in the basic annuity would bear to such basic annuity, if the employee annuitant were living and had made no joint and survivor election.

SEC. 408. No annuities accruing after the month in which this Act is approved shall be reduced under section 2 (a) 3 of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937 to compensate for an annuity terminated by recovery from disability.

SEC. 409. In the application of section 6 of the Railroad Retirement Act of 1937 with respect to persons who were not employers before the enactment of section 1 of this Act, the dates January 1, 1946, and January 1, 1947, shall be substituted for March 1, 1937, and July 1, 1937, respectively.

Approved July 31, 1946.