to discuss all kinds of fiscal and related legislative problems, and advice and assistance are provided. Also, while the General Accounting Office is specifically required to service only the committees of the Congress having jurisdiction over revenues, appropriations, or expenditures, investigations and reports are made and information and aid furnished at the request of other committees and individual Members of Congress, if possible to do so within the limitations of the personnel and funds available.

Thousands of informal and telephone inquiries are received in the General Accounting Office each year from Members of Congress and their staffs, and from administrative, contracting, and fiscal officers throughout the Government, for information or advice on decisions of the Comptroller General and other fiscal matters. These requests are answered promptly by specially trained and qualified personnel. Advice and information so provided save the necessity of formal decisions or reports on many questions which are already settled or can be worked out informally on the spot.

These services greatly enhance the usefulness of the General Accounting Office. But they implement, rather than replace, the underlying functions, and should be considered in that light.

Excellent service not fully utilized

Considering the services offered by the General Accounting Office altogether, the Congress has at hand an instrumentality not only to enforce more effectively its inherent power of the purse but, also, to provide information required for its determination of fiscal policy and formulation of related legislative programs to meet everchanging and expanding needs of the Government. Although, as pointed out, the Comptroller General now is called on for assistance with greater frequency than ever before, even more effective use can and should be made by the Congress, and by individual Members, of his reports, recommendations, and services. The General Accounting Office is, after all, the agency of the Congress set up for this purpose and should be so utilized by the Congress to the greatest possible

extent.

Financial control by Congress must be carefully guarded

The legislative control of public funds is the basis upon which the fiscal policy of this Government is built. It is a part of our system of checks and balances. Checks by the Congress itself and by its agent, the General Accounting Office, are means of enforcement. During the past 10 or 15 years a great deal of legislation has been enacted which, bit by bit, has the effect of removing the financial controls and checks of the legislative branch, leaving the executive free to do as it wills in its spending actions. To the extent that Congress enacts such legislation it relinquishes its control of public expenditures. It is a control the exercise of which should be jealously guarded and any further encroachments upon it-either by making actions of the spending agencies with regard to financial matters final and conclusive, or by curtailing independent audit and control powers should be vigorously attacked and beaten back.

The General Accounting Office as an agency of the Congress over the years, has rendered an extremely valuable service to the Congress. There is no question but that it has saved the taxpayers a great deal of

money.

A recent report on certain phases of the work of the Maritime Commission made to a subcommittee of this committee is a typical illustration of the necessity for, and value of, the service rendered by the General Accounting Office.

As an agent of the Congress, it has served as a check upon the spending of the executive agencies.

Any proposed legislation which even tends to weaken the jurisdiction of the General Accounting Office, as conferred upon it by the Congress, or which would tend to interfere with the control of the Congress over the activities of that Office, should be jealously scrutinized.

There is no doubt but that as long as it continues to act within the jurisdiction conferred upon it, the Congress will continue to jealously guard the authority of this agency, which is its only effective means of checking the expenditures of the appropriations it makes.

This report is not, of course, to be taken as a blanket approval of everything GAO has done or may do-your committee offers this only as a first survey of the GAO.

If our further studies show changes may be needed, they will be presented for the consideration of the Congress. When the Comptroller General testified on the reorganization bill, he invited Congress, itself, to carefully scrutinize the activities of the agency and enact any legislation which it thought would tend to enhance the value of the agency's work. That, too, is a recognition that the General Accounting Office is an agency of the Congress.

OCTOBER 14, 1949.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. RANKIN, from the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

To accompany H. R. 6301]

The Committee on Veterans' Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 6301) to provide for parity in awards of disability compensation, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with an amendment and recommend that the bill, as amended, do pass. The amendment is as follows:

Line 9, following the word "ratio", strike the word "of", and insert in lieu thereof the word "to".

EXPLANATION OF THE BILL

This bill would remove an inequality resulting from the enactment of Public Law 339, Eighty-first Congress, approved October 10, 1949. Among other things, Public Law 339 increased the rate of compensation for service-connected disability under part I of Veterans Regulation No. 1 (a), as amended, from $138 to $150 monthly, with proportionate lesser increases for the nine degrees of partial disability. This act did not provide any corresponding increases in the rates of compensation for service-connected disability as provided in the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, and restored by Public, No. 141, Seventy-third Congress, as amended. Under existing law, World War I veterans are entitled to compensation for serviceconnected disability under the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, or under the veterans regulations promulgated pursuant to Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress, March 20, 1933, whichever will provide the greater benefit.

The schedule of disability ratings, 1925, promulgated under the World War Veterans' Act, established ratings based upon the average

H. Repts., 81-1, vol. 6- -106

impairments of earning capacity resulting from injuries in civil occupations similar to the occupation of the injured man at the time of enlistment, whereas the schedule for rating disabilities, 1945, promulgated pursuant to Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress, established one rate regardless of the occupation of the individual. Because of this difference, certain World War I veterans are entitled to a higher rating for their disabilities under the schedule of disability ratings, 1925, than is provided under the schedule for rating disabilities, 1945. However, if a World War I veteran is rated under the Schedule of Disability Ratings, 1925, he is only entitled to a proportionate part of $138 rather than $150. For this reason, certain World War I veterans will not be entitled to any increased compensation under Public Law 339. Certain disabilities presumed to be serviceconnected under the provisions of section 200 of the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, could not be deemed to be serviceconnected under the presumptions specified in the veterans regulations, as amended, and, accordingly, are entitled to compensation under the World War Veterans' Act only. The enactment of H. R. 6301 will provide corresponding increases for such World War I veterans as are provided for other war veterans under Public Law 339.

As increased rates under Public Law 339 will become effective as of December 1, 1949, the increases proposed by the bill are made effective as of the same date.

It is estimated that enactment of the bill would increase benefits to approximately 163,700 World War I veterans at a cost for the first vear of approximately $7,643,000.

The report of the Veterans' Administration is as follows:

Hon. JOHN E. RANKIN,

VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION, Washington 25, D. C., October 12, 1949.

Chairman, Committee on Veterans' Affairs,

House of Representatives, Washington 25, D. C.

DEAR MR. RANKIN: Reference is made to your recent request for a report by the Veterans' Administration on H. R. 6301, Eighty-first Congress, a bill to provide for parity in awards of disability compensation.

The purpose of the bill is to increase the basic rates of compensation for serviceconnected disability based on degree of disability payable to persons otherwise eligible for disability compensation under the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as restored with limitations by Public, No. 141, Seventy-third Congress, March 28, 1934, as amended. The bill provides that such persons shall be entitled to monthly compensation of $150 if and while the disability is rated as total; and if and while partially disabled, in an amount having the same ratio "of" $150 as the degree of disability bears to total disability. The word "of" preceding "$150" in line 9 of the bill is apparently a typographical error and should read "to."

Public, No. 141, Seventy-third Congress, March 28, 1934, provided for s restoration to the compensation rolls of World War I veterans who had been in receipt of compensation under section 200 of the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as amended, prior to the repeal of that section by Public, No. 2, Seventy-third Congress, provided the veterans entered service prior to November 11, 1918, their disabilities were not the result of their own misconduct, and compensation had not been payable previously on account of fraud, misrepresentation of a material fact, or unmistakable error as to conclusions of fact or law. In those cases, however, where service connection had been established by virtue of certain statutory presumptions, compensation was authorized at 75 percent of the rate otherwise payable. Section 1 of Public Law 339, Eighty-first Congress, approved October 10, 1949, repealed this limitation and authorized the payment in presumptive cases of 100 percent of the compensation otherwise authorized under Public, No. 141.

Under existing law, the basic monthly rate authorized for persons eligible for disability compensation under the World War Veterans' Act, 1924, as restored