Statement by the President Upon Signing Three Veterans Benefits Bills.

AMERICA does not forget the long legion of brave men who have served in freedom's cause. We care for all of them:

--the 23 million veterans of our wars;

--the 70,000 servicemen now returning to civilian life each month;

--their dependents and survivors.

Their sacrifices have earned our people's gratitude; their needs demand our Nation's concern.

Today, I sign three measures that broaden and improve veterans benefits.

The first gives those who need vocational rehabilitation the right to choose such training on a part-time basis, so they may work even as they learn. The other bills enable the Federal Government to increase payments to State and community veterans homes to assure even higher standards of care for our former servicemen.

These three bills will help provide and sustain decent standards of care and imaginative programs of help for the men who have fought our wars.

With them we make another payment on a debt as real, and as honorable, as any national obligation.

We will not rest until we have done all we can to satisfy that debt.