Veterans' Rehabilitation and Education Amendments of 1980 Statement on Signing H.R. 5288 Into Law.

Today I am pleased to sign H.R. 5288, the Veterans' Rehabilitation and Education Amendments of 1980. I recently signed an unprecedented fourth consecutive cost-of-living increase for the over two and one-quarter million service disabled veterans and over 375,000 of their survivors. Taken together, these two measures will significantly improve the services and benefits provided to our disabled veterans and their families.

H.R. 5288 provides for a greatly needed modernization of the vocational rehabilitation program administered by the Veterans Administration. It also provides a 10-percent increase in education benefits for veterans and their dependents who are pursuing educational programs under the GI bill and the Survivors' Education Program.

In October 1978, I sent to the Congress a message urging that the Veterans Administration's vocational rehabilitation program be updated to provide more assistance to our disabled veterans. The administration's legislative recommendations to carry this out were sent to the Congress in the spring of 1979. I am gratified that most of the administration's proposals have been included in this measure.

The veterans' rehabilitation program, which provides disabled veterans with training to enable them to become gainfully employed, has been in existence since World War II, but has long needed modernization. Unlike the current program, which is limited to simply restoring a veteran's employability, H.R. 5288 expands the scope of services and assistance to ensure that disabled veterans actually get jobs and keep them. The new program will also place emphasis on helping severely disabled veterans who are unable to pursue a vocational objective to become self-sufficient in their daily living. In addition, H.R. 5288 increases by 17 percent the subsistence allowance benefits paid to disabled veterans in training.

My administration proposed a 10-percent rate increase effective in fiscal year 1981 in educational allowances for veterans and dependents pursuing programs of education through Veterans Administration education programs. Under the bill, half of this increase will become effective on October 1, 1980, and the balance on January 1, 1981. This well-deserved increase will help these veterans and dependents meet the increased costs of their education.

A number of other program changes are also included in the proposal I am signing today, many recommended by the administration. They include changes that will, for example, make it easier for more military service personnel to participate in the post-Vietnam educational assistance program, strengthen the administration of the GI bill program, and aid VA in improving its efforts to collect debts owed the Government.

I regret that H.R. 5288 does not include my recommendation to give educationally disadvantaged veterans an extra 2 years beyond the current 10-year limit for using their educational benefits. On the whole, however, this is an excellent bill and, I am happy to sign it into law.