Statement of-Continued Multer, Hon. Abraham J., a Representative in Congress from the Riley, George D., legislative representative, and Clinton M. Fair, social security department, AFL-CIO.. Scanlan, Lt. Comd. Fred J., USN, retired, national secretary, Fleet St. George, Hon. Katherine, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York; accompanied by Charles Draudt, past president and member, board of directors, New York State Volunteer Fire- Police Association; Jerome Kornfeld, chairman, law committee and counsel to the New York State First District Officers Association; and Robert Byrus, representing B. Richter Townsend, executive secre- tary, International Fire Chiefs Association_ Teague, Hon. Charles M., a Representative in Congress from the Letters, prepared statements, supplemental material, etc.: Abernethy, Hon. Thomas G., a Representative in Congress from the Page 88 103 American Federation of Government Employees, statement of 147 105 Bennett, Hon. Charles E., a Representative in Congress from the Campbell, Hon. Joseph, Comptroller General of the United 107 Cross, Saver & O'Shea, letter to committee_ 151 Dixon, Hon. Henry A., a Representative in Congress from the State 104 Fino, Hon. Paul A., a Representative in Congress from the State of 105 Forand, Hon. Aime J., a Representative in Congress from the State of 102 Gibson, Everett G., legislative director, National Federation of Post 150 187 Harris, Jeannette H., workmen's compensation committee of the New York State Association of Plaintiffs' Trial Lawyers, prepared Holtzman, Hon. Lester, a Representative in Congress from the State 98 Larson, Charles R., president, the National Rural Letter Carriers' 184 McAvoy, Harold, president, National Association of Post Office and 194 Merrow, Hon. Chester E., a Representative in Congress from the 99 Nagle, Paul A., president, National Postal Transport Association, Owen, Vaux, president, National Federation of Federal Employees, Riley, George D., AFL-CIO legislative representative, prepared Rosenblum, Rev. Dr. William F., rabbi of Temple Israel of the city Thomas, Rev. John W., DD., executive secretary, Council on Christian Social Progress of the American Baptist Convention, statement of Warfel, George L., president, the National Association of Special Delivery Messengers, statement of... Witherspoon, Capt. Maurice M., Masonic War Veterans of the State 159 158 AMENDMENTS TO FEDERAL EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION ACT WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1960 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON SAFETY AND COMPENSATION Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, in room 429, Old House Office Building, at 10:10 a.m., Hon. Roy W. Wier (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Wier, O'Hara, Frelinghuysen, and Goodell. Present also: Reva Beck Bosone, legal counsel. Mr. WIER. I will call the meeting to order. There are two absentees here, but we still have a quorum. Since Mr. McCauley is going to review these bills pending before our subcommittee and it may be some time before we have to refresh our memory on what he said about them, I am having the reporter take down the information for the subcommittee. Mr. GOODELL. Fine. STATEMENT OF WILLIAM MCCAULEY, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION; ACCOMPANIED BY HIS COUNSEL, HERBERT P. MILLER, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Mr. WIER. Mr. McCauley, let me say that since the organization of our subcommittees of the House Education and Labor Committee, my subcommittee has certain jurisdictions. One of them is legislation on Federal safety, and the other is on Federal employees' compensation. Added to this I have bills on the care of the aged, and so on. In the past two sessions of Congress bills dealing with these subjects have been introduced. As you have just said we last worked on these Federal employees' compensation bills back in 1949, when we thought we had a good bill. Mr. MCCAULEY. Yes, sir. Mr. WIER. Since the 10 years of legislation, of course there have been cases come up where the eligibility has been very difficult to establish, and new cases have shown up that brings in-what is it, Mrs. Bosone, 18 or 19 amendments? Mrs. BosONE. There are 21, including the safety amendments of Mr. Cunningham. Mr. WIER. The safety amendment is not in this morning. 1 Mr. WIER. Twenty. What the subcommittee would like to do here, Mr. McCauley, is to get the reaction of your Department to these pending amendments. After we have heard your comment regarding amendments and how it will affect each bill, we shall call meetings to hear the authors of the bill. And if there is no objection now, we shall proceed, Mr. McCauley with H.R. 92. It might be well to take down notes on the bills as he reports on them just what might be pertinent to the bill. I hope we can get through by lunchtime. At least I would like to get this one day out of the way. You may now proceed, Mr. McCauley. At the end of the discussion of any of these bills by Mr. McCauley, if any of the committee members desire to ask questions of Mr. McCauley, you are free to do so. Mr. GOODELL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. MCCAULEY. I might state, Mr. Chairman, that the Department has had under active policy consideration amendments to the act and some of the subjects we had considered in our considering are included in some of these bills also. We are rather hopeful that we can come up with some proposal in the near future that would cover things that we think should be changed in the law as well. Proceeding in line with your comments a moment ago, the first bill on the list I have received is H.R. 92. (H.R. 92 follows:) [H.R. 92, 86th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To amend the Federal Employees' Compensation Act to provide that an employee who has received compensation for disability for an aggregate period of twenty years shall thereafter be paid compensation for disability for the remainder of his life Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 4 of the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, as amended (5 U.S.C. 754), is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new subsection: "(c) A disabled employee who has been paid monthly monetary compensation pursuant to this Act for his disability for an aggregate period of twenty years shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to be disabled thereafter for the remainder of his life, and shall receive for each month of the remainder of his life monthly monetary compensation of not less than an amount equal to the average of the monthly monetary compensation paid him during such twenty-year period, except on a showing that payment of such compensation pursuant to this Act during any part of such twenty-year period was induced by fraud." SEC. 2. (a) All periods, subsequent to September 6, 1916, for which monthly monetary compensation is or was paid to a disabled employee under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, as amended, shall be considered for the purpose of determining eligibility, under the amendments made by this Act, for monthly monetary compensation payable on account of a disabled employee receiving monthly monetary compensation for a period of twenty years. (b) No payments of monthly monetary compensation shall be made under the amendment made by this Act for any period prior to the first day of the first calendar month occurring after the date on which entitlement is established under section 4(c) of the Federal Employees' Compensation Act. Mr. MCCAULEY. This bill proposes that a disabled employee who has been paid monetary compensation for an aggregate period of 20 years shall be deemed to be permanently disabled for the remainder of his life and that he shall receive for each month of his life a monthly monetary compensation which shall not be less than the average of the payments he has received over 20 years. The only exception would be where the payment in the past has been induced by fraud. |