1st Session AMENDMENTS TO FEDERAL EMPLOYEES' No. 729 JUNE 6, 1949.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed Mr. LESINSKI, from the Committee on Education and Labor, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 31911 The Committee on Education and Labor, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 3191) to amend the Federal Employees' Compensation Act of September 7, 1916, as amended, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments and recommend that the bill as amended do pass. The amendments are as follows: (a) Page 4, line 2, strike out when required,". (b) Page 11, line 13, strike out "partial" and "(b)" and, in lieu of the latter, insert "(a) of this section,". (c) Page 12, line 13, strike out "(a)". (d) Page 13, line 22, strike out "for permanent total disability from injury." (e) Page 14, line 1, substitute "totally" for "total". Page 14, line 4, strike out the word "total"; insert after the word "disability" the words "resulting from the injury". (9) Page 17, line 9. following the word "accepts", insert "after such marriage". (h) Page 17, line 10, following the word "compensation", strike out the words "after such marriage." and insert "to which he is not entitled," (i) Page 19, line 9, strike out "or". Page 20, line 20, strike out "is", and substitute therefor "as". (k) Page 21, line 14, strike out the words "unless otherwise specifically provided by law,". Page 21, line 16, strike out the comma after the word "States". (m) Page 21, line 17, strike out the words "wholly owned by it,". (n) Page 21, line 19, strike out the words "at law" and insert in lieu thereof the words "in a civil action". (0) Page 21, line 20, after the word "proceedings" insert a comma and the following words: "whether administrative or judicial,". (p) Page 26, line 8, after the word "earnings", insert "of such employee". (g) Page 27, line 6, strike out "(a)". (r) Page 27, line 22, after the word "Administrator" insert the following sentence: The Administrator is authorized to delegate to any officer or employee of the Federal Security Agency any of the powers conferred upon him by this Act. (s) Page 28, line 1, strike out the word "Section", and insert in lieu thereof "The first and third sentences of section". (t) Page 28, line 2, strike out the word "is" and insert instead the word "are". (u) Page 29, line 21, insert the following new section: FEES PUNISHMENT FOR CONTEMPT SEC. 208. Section 23 of such Act, as amended, is further amended to read as follows: "SEC. 23. (a) Fees for examinations made on the part of the United States under sections 21 and 22 by physicians who are not officers or employees of the United States and not under contract to the United States to render medical services to its employees shall be fixed by the Administrator. Such fees, and any sum payable to the employee under section 21, when authorized or approved by the Administrator, shall be paid from the employees' compensation fund. "(b) A claimant may be represented before the Administrator in any proceeding under this Act by any person duly authorized by such claimant. No claim for legal services or for any other services rendered in respect of a case, claim, or award for compensation under this Act, to or on account of any person, shall be valid unless approved by the Administrator. Any person who receives any fee or other consideration, or any gratuity on account of services so rendered. unless such fee, consideration, or gratuity, is so approved, or who solicits employment for himself or another in respect of any case, claim, or award for compensation under (or to be brought under) this Act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof shall, for each offense, be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by imprisonment not to exceed one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment. "(c) If any person in proceedings before the Administrator or his duly authorized representative disobeys or resists any lawful order or process, or misbehaves during a hearing or so near the place thereof as to obstruct the same, the Administrator or his duly authorized representative shall certify the facts to the district court having jurisdiction in the place in which he is sitting (or to the District Court of the United States for the District of Columbia if he is sitting in such district) which shall thereupon in a summary manner hear the evidence as to the acts complained of, and, if the evidence so warrants, punish such person in the same manner and to the same extent as for a contempt committed before the court, or commit such person upon the same conditions as if the doing of the forbidden act had occurred with reference to the process of or in the presence of the court." (v) Page 33, line 4, strike out the words "or disfigurement," and insert after the word "shall" the phrase "(A) in cases within the purview of section 5 (b) or in cases of disfigurement." (w) Page 33, line 16, strike out the words "in which the injury" and insert in lieu thereof the words "where the injury occurred on or after January 1, 1940, and (B) in other cases, apply retroactively to injuries which". (x) Page 34, line 1, strike out the words "and provided" and insert in lieu thereof "Provided further". (y) Page 34, line 4, strike out the word "partial". (2) Page 34, line 8, at the end of subsection (d) (1) insert the following new sentence: And provided further, That any award made under the provisions of this subsection shall be payable prospectively in the same manner as though the injury occurred after the enactment of this Act. (aa) Page 36, line 12, insert a new section 305 as follows: ACCIDENT PREVENTION AND ANNUAL REPORTS SEC. 305. Section 33 of the Federal Employees' Compensation Act, as amended, is further amended by designating the first two paragraphs thereof, respectively, subsections "(a)" and "(b)" and by adding a new subsection designated as "(c)", as follows: "(e) In order to reduce the number of accidents and injuries among Government officers and employees, encourage safe practices, eliminate work hazards and health risks, and reduce compensable injuries, the heads of the various departments and agencies are authorized and directed to develop, support, and foster organized safety promotion, and the President may also establish by Executive order a safety council composed of representatives of Government departments and agencies to serve as an advisory body to the Administrator in furtherance of the safety program carried out by the Administrator pursuant to this section, and the President may undertake such other measures as he may deem proper to prevent injuries and accidents to persons covered by this Act." (bb) Page 37, line 8, after the word "OF", insert "MINIMUM AND". GENERAL STATEMENT The Federal Employees' Compensation Act has been in existence nearly 33 years. During that time, the scale of compensation benefits for disability and death has been modified on only one occasion. was in 1927. Twenty-two years have since elasped without revision of the act so as to place the scale of benefits in line with the great upswing of wages and living costs since that time. Under the present provisions of the Employees' Compensation Act, Federal employees are limited in case of total disability, and their families in case of death, to a maximum compensation of $1,400 a year. In many instances, this sum is a small fraction of the pay of a totally disabled worker. Under prevailing economic conditions, the workmen's compensation benefits at present are at such low levels as to cause this necessary act to lose its effectiveness. There is no dispute that great hardships are being imposed upon disabled Federal employees or their dependent families and that many of them are left with the only alternative of relying upon charity or the help of their friends to afford them the barest kind of existence. The great Government of the United States, as a matter of common justice to its employees, should remedy this situation and should restore to the employees that measure of security which is necessary to maintain them during disablement, and their dependent families after death due to employment injuries. The plight of Federal employees which is due to inadequate benefits was mentioned by the President in his budget message of January 3. 1949 The President said: The benefit rates have not been changed since 1927. They are now quite inadequate I recommend that these benefit rates be liberalized. The major purpose of the bill is to make benefits more realistic in terms of present wage rates so as to enable a disabled Federal employee and his family to maintain themselves where the employee's wage earning capacity has been destroyed or impaired through accident or disease attributable to his employment. The benefit rate would be slightly increased where a disabled employee has one or more dependents. The death benefit provisions of the act would be liberalized along parallel lines, with minor adjustments designed to give a deceased employee's wife and children a more substantial degree of protection. A major feature is the inclusion of provisions designed to indemnify employees for the loss or loss of use of members or functions of the body, or for permanent cosmetic disfigurement, a kind of provision which will be found in practically all of the workmen's compensation laws in this country. As explained in the sectional analysis, however, the provisions have been improved so as to render them more just as well as administratively convenient. In addition to necessary changes in the compensation rates, and the provision for a schedule of payments as indemnity for such member losses, the bill contains a number of technical amendments and refinements necessary to facilitate administration and to make more just and accurate the computations involved in the adjudication of claims. The coverage of the Employees' Compensation Act under the present law extends only to civilian employees of the Government. The bill would include within the coverage provisions, in addition to such employees, all civilian officers of the Government in its three branches, as well as those persons who render personal services to the United States without, or for nominal, compensation. The inclusion of civilian officers of the Government will eliminate a major discrimination. The line of demarcation between civilian "officers" and "employees" is frequently so obscure as to make just decisions impossible. Officers of the Government, as well as employees, often perform missions to the far corners of the earth and the conditions under which they render services are frequently relatively hazardous. It is only fair and just that they should receive the same extent of protection as their subordinates. Justice also requires that those who, under statutory authority, perform personal services for the United States in a civilian capacity but without compensation or for a merely nominal compensation, such as a dollar a year, be given protection against the risk of injury or death suffered in such service. There are a number of tragic cases in which compensation had to be denied to them, although in some of them Congress afforded relief by private act. Private legislation obviously is not the answer to this problem. The bill also would adjust to a more realistic level the compensation base in the case of persons already on the benefit rolls whose compensation would not otherwise be adequately affected by amendments because of their very low pay rates when injured. SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL PROVISIONS (1) An increase in the maximum family benefit from 66% to 75 percent of pay in both disability and death cases. Under the bill a disabled person without dependents would receive the 66% percent rate and a person with one dependent (wife, child, or parent) would receive 8% percent more. (2) (a) Elimination of the flat maximum benefit amount and an increase from $58.33 to $112.50 in the monthly minimum benefit for disability and, (b) corresponding elimination of the maximum monthly |