Statement by the President Upon Signing Bills Providing Additional Benefits for Disabled Veterans.
I HAVE today approved two bills that bring a greater measure of justice to our veterans who suffer from service-connected disabilities.
The first bill provides a 30 percent increase in the basic subsistence allowance paid to such veterans. This amount is comparable to increases in living costs since April 1, 1948, when the current rates were established. It is fair and right that these adjustments be made.
The second bill provides a longer period of time during which service-connected disabled veterans may receive vocational rehabilitation training. Under present law that period is 9 years. Hereafter a disabled veteran whose disability becomes more grave, and who requires additional training because of his misfortune, may receive it during an additional 10-year period.
America owes these new laws to the men who have been injured or wounded in her service. I am proud to sign them into law.
Note: The statement was read by Bill D. Moyers, Special Assistant to the President, at his news conference at the White House at 11:50 a.m. on Friday, August 27, 1965. It was not made public in the form of a White House press release.
As enacted, the first bill (H.R. 206) is Public Law 89-137 (79 Stat. 576); the second bill (H.R. 208) is Public Law 89-138 (79 Stat. 577).
Lyndon B. Johnson, Statement by the President Upon Signing Bills Providing Additional Benefits for Disabled Veterans. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/240794