October 26, 1971
Page 37486
By Mr. MUSKIE (for himself and Mr. CRANSTON)
S. 2744. A bill to provide better in-service education and training programs for members of the Armed Forces of the United States, to provide additional education and training opportunities for veterans, to provide better job training and job placement for veterans, and for other purposes. Referred to the Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, today I am introducing for myself and Senator CRANSTON a bill entitled "Servicemen's and Veterans' Education, Training and Job Assistance Act of 1971." This act changes fundamentally the basic concepts of this Nation's responsibility to those who enter our military. forces. It would guarantee effective job training and educational opportunity to all American servicemen and women while in the service and to recent veterans.
During the past few years this country has become increasingly troubled by the plight of returning Vietnam veterans. The unemployment rate for the 322,000 Vietnam-era veterans out of work, 80 percent higher than the unconscionable national rate, is disturbing to all Americans. The Nation has been shocked to learn that large numbers of our servicemen returning home and remaining abroad are victims of drug addiction and abuse.
Regardless of differing views on the Vietnam war, all Americans must be united in our concern with the problems of our returning veterans. What American would disagree with the statement of President Franklin Roosevelt in announcing the first GI bill in 1944:
We must make provision now to help our returning servicemen ... bridge the gap from war to peace activity.
The members of the armed forces have been compelled to make greater economic sacrifice and every other kind of sacrifice than the rest of us, and are entitled to definite action to help take care of their special problems.
The goal of helping the returning veteran established by President Roosevelt in 1944 should still be a goal in 1971. Unfortunately, we are moving away from rather than approaching it. We have failed our veterans because the administration has not developed new programs to handle the new and old problems facing the serviceman today. Instead, the administration has produced a series of belated actions in an attempt to bolster outmoded and largely ineffective existing programs.
The plight of our returning veterans and the certainty that these kinds of problems will continue demand that we abandon stagnant approaches. We must fundamentally revise our programs for veterans to meet truly the goal established in 1944 to help this Nation's servicemen bridge the gap from war to peace activities. We owe nothing less to those who volunteer or are called to serve.
I. THE SCOPE OF THE PROBLEM
A few statistics reveal the alarming problems faced by Vietnam veterans: Although the national unemployment rate is 6 percent, the unemployment rate for veterans from ages 20 to 29 is 8.4
percent; for those under age 20, 14.6 percent; and for minority group veterans from ages 20 to 24, an estimated 20.9 percent. During August 1971, there were 322,000 unemployed veterans, a 50-percent increase in umemployment in one year.
A recently published Department of Defense study shows that present training programs are not helping those who need assistance most. The study indicates that those who have served in the most dangerous combat jobs – infantry, armor, artillery – and those who have served in Vietnam have a higher unemployment rate than other servicemen.
Only 26 percent of veterans eligible for educational benefits upon discharge are taking advantage of this opportunity, compared with 50 percent after World War II, and 41 to 45 percent after the Korean war. Also, veterans who most need educational assistance to obtain a high school diploma are receiving the least assistance. Although 15.5 percent of our Vietnam-era veterans have not completed high school, less than 10 percent of them are using any GI bill education benefits.
The marvelous medical care provided in Vietnam has resulted in a lower death rate than in any other war in recent U.S. history. It has also resulted in more seriously wounded returning veterans needing extensive medical assistance, prosthetic devices and rehabilitative training.
While veterans with service-connected injuries are given priority in the VA hospital system, their numbers have produced overcrowding and intolerable delays for veterans needing medical care.
The administration responded to this tragic situation by requesting funds for the present fiscal year which did not even cover inflationary increases in the cost of medical care. Congress refused to accept this grossly inadequate request and appropriated an additional $200,000,000 for VA hospitals and expressly insisted that the average daily patient level be maintained at 85,000. Tragically, $72,000,000 of this increase was slashed in the President's cost-cutting program and the remainder has not been released.
By September 30, 1971, the average daily patient level had shrunk to less than 80,000 – the equivalent of closing eleven 500-bed hospitals – in direct violation of the congressional directive. Costcutting procedures in these areas are intolerable and inhumane. The medical needs of veterans cannot be sacrificed.
Recent surveys have estimated that between 10 to 15 percent of all American troops in Vietnam are taking hard drugs. Senate investigators have learned that this epidemic exists in many major military installations outside Vietnam as well. Senate hearings have disclosed that there are 80,000 to 90,000 recently discharged veterans in the United States who are addicted to heroin and other narcotics. Present programs scarcely begin to deal with this crisis. We cannot avoid it by claiming – as the administration seems prepared to do – that the problem is overstated because tests which are so easily faked by heroin addicts seem to indicate a smaller percentage of heroin being used.
Even the elementary but extremely important task of handling routine inquires and applications for benefits and informing veterans of their rights under the various veterans' programs is inadequate. Despite the implementation of various "outreach" and other programs designed to expedite communication between veterans and the VA, the operation is overwhelmed by the refusal of the administration to seek adequate funding. Since 1969, the average workload of VA division offices has increased by 25 percent, while the employment in these offices has increased by only 3½ percent. A new direct-dialing telephone system has been introduced to give veterans better communication with VA offices, but an indicator at the Boston office has reported about 900 "busy signals" daily because there are not enough employees to answer the phones. Almost every VA office has reported inordinate backlogs in the handling of routine applications.
II. THE ADMINISTRATION'S RESPONSE
The response of the present administration to these problems has been totally inadequate. Today's veteran is met by over 40 different programs administered by the Department of Defense, the Veterans' Administration, the Department of Labor, the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, and 50 State employment services. The discharged serviceman receives instruction and information from most of these organizations, but in many cases receives no real assistance. The administration has made little effort to simplify the bureaucratic maze which faces the average veteran.
On October 15, 1970, the administration, recognizing the serious employment problem of veterans, announced a jobs for veterans program and formed yet another Presidential committee to encourage employers – including the Federal Government – to hire veterans. This committee, operating without any real power, has launched an advertising campaign and obtained vague promises from employers to hire veterans.
While its purposes are commendable, the committee does not do the job. For example, 3 weeks after a recent VA-sponsored "Job Mart" in Washington, D.C., where some 1,300 veterans were given job interviews with 50 employers claiming to have 3,000 jobs available, only 67 veterans had actually received job offers. Moreover, no sooner had the administration stated that it would make every effort to bring veterans into Federal jobs, than it announced that, as part of its new economic program, Federal employment would be reduced. Quickly forgotten were all previous promises of hiring veterans.
It was only in June of this year that the administration began to make serious efforts to deal with the narcotics problem in the Armed Forces. Compulsory tests for servicemen returning from Vietnam to identify users of heroin were initiated and an expansion of narcotic treatment facilities was obstensibly accelerated.
These belated administration programs to find jobs for veterans and to deal with the narcotics epidemic are commendable to the extent thay have some effect. But these programs must be classified in the all too familiar category of "too little, too late." They are aimed primarily at providing assistance to servicemen once they are leaving the military or have already been discharged. Dealing with servicemen's problems after discharge is dealing only with the tip of the iceberg. Surely the time has come to go beyond the addition of just a few new patches to the current tattered patchwork of programs and benefits.
III. A WIDER ROLE FOR THE ARMED FORCES
The Armed Forces must recognize their responsibility to train and to educate to the fullest extent possible servicemen and women who need these most basic societal skills. While the Armed Forces obviously must concentrate first on their military mission, experience has shown that a portion of every serviceman's time in a noncombat situation can be made available for comprehensive education and job-training programs before a serviceman is released. That time should be used by the Defense Department to insure that all Americans who serve their country in uniform be given in return the tools needed for a productive and decent civilian life.
Expanding the role of the Defense Department would not only assist the servicemen – it would serve to increase the popularity and desirability of service in the Armed Forces. During the past fiscal year, the Defense Department spent $18 million in a recruiting campaign designed to show military life as a frolic – a vacation in Europe. Yet one report estimates this $18 million attracted only an estimated 2,500 recruits because, as anyone who has served knows, military life is anything but a vacation.
If military service were advertised as a time of opportunity – a time to receive needed education, training and job assistance – the attractiveness of a tour of duty would surely increase. This will help us approach the goal of lower draft calls during times of peace.
During times of crisis when manpower needs are high, our draft laws do not place an equal burden on all of our young people. Some young men must serve while others continue their lives without interruption. If we make military service a time of opportunity – as well as a time of danger and sacrifice – then the uneven burden of the draft can begin to be equalized.
Just as we must offer more education and training to those who serve our country, we must offer them programs at a time in the serviceman's career when they are useful. This Nation's present programs are geared primarily at assisting a veteran after he has been released from military service. Admittedly, some recognition of a governmental responsibility to equip members of the Armed Forces to face the civilian world occurred under the Johnson administration through the organization of Project Transition. This program was designed to counsel and train servicemen in selected skills. However, the low rate of success of Project Transition is revealed not only by unemployment statistics but also by the fact that less than 10 percent of separating servicemen have received training under its auspices.
Yet, just a few relevant facts indicate why effective assistance before release from active duty is needed:
Of those enlisted personnel separated from service during fiscal year 1970, 15.5 percent did not have a high school diploma and 77 percent had less than 1 year of college work. If these servicemen must wait to begin their education until after their discharge, they will lose more valuable time in becoming full and productive members of society.
Over 50 percent of our servicemen serve in military jobs where conversion to civilian occupations based in skills learned in the military is not possible. Delaying vocational training until after military service causes a drain on society and a hardship for the affected veteran. There is no better time to help provide a serviceman with the skills needed to enter the civilian world than while that serviceman is still in the military.
IV. THE CHARTER OF ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
In recognition of the obligations I believe the Government owes our men in uniform, and I and Senator CRANSTON are proposing that Congress enact a Charter of Economic Opportunity for servicemen and veterans. This charter would guarantee that each serviceman would be entitled to receive, during his duty hours and at Government expense, the following:
The opportunity to obtain a high school diploma or any certificate equivalent to such a diploma;
If the serviceman has a high school diploma, the opportunity for refresher or preparatory courses making the transition to college far easier;
Training for a civilian job, and assistance in securing a job after discharge.
Enactment of the Charter of Economic Opportunity will provide an incentive for entering military service and substantially eliminate many of the problems of present and future veterans.
There is no reason why our defense establishment, which rightly prides itself as the finest trainer of fighting men, cannot also train men for peace. The talents which have been turned to destruction can be redirected toward creating innovative programs for educating young men and women quickly and effectively. Military service should be recognized as a reciprocal obligation in which young people give service and are, in turn, provided services. Post-discharge programs will then be a continuation and completion of what began in the service. They would not be burdened with the problems of starting out from scratch.
Simply enacting a Charter of Economic Opportunity will not, of course, completely solve our present or future problems. A series of additional steps must be taken as well.
The legislation will provide for the creation of a new Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate who will be charged with insuring that the guarantees in the charter are implemented. The legislation will also require that, within 30 days after the Deputy Assistant Secretary takes office, an advisory committee of education and training experts appointed by the President be established to begin organizing the program immediately. The Deputy Assistant Secretary should report to Congress, within 60 days after the committee is organized, on the specific steps and the funding necessary to implement the charter.
The bill will provide for the creation of a new line organization in the Defense Department, to report to the Deputy Assistant Secretary and to be responsible for administering all charter programs such as counseling, training, education, or job placement. In this way, fixed and central responsibility and efficient administration will be secured.
The legislation will provide specific directions and guidelines as to how the Congress intends the charter to be implemented and maintained under careful civilian control. To this end, the following 10 requirements will be prescribed:
First. The legislation will require that trained counselors be provided so that each serviceman will receive assistance from the day he begins active duty. At present, only 50 percent of those separating from service receive any counseling at all during their entire military tour of duty –
and most of this advice and assistance is of little practical use. The Deputy Assistant Secretary will be required, as part of his initial report to Congress, to specify how many counselors will be needed and what costs will be involved.
Second. Since many members of the Armed Forces will be capable of finding employment immediately upon their release without either intensive training or education, these men should be provided with an opportunity – prior to discharge – to refresh and improve any skills which became rusty during their years in the Armed Forces. The legislation will require that refresher and preparatory education programs be expanded and that the educational institutions close to military installations be utilized. This type of training is currently authorized under the VA-administered PREP program, but the extent to which servicemen are given the opportunity to participate in the program seemingly varies according to the dictates of individual post commanders. The program should be made a direct responsibility of the Department of Defense – and expanded so that servicemen have an absolute right to such training before discharge.
Third. Since the military has virtually no job placement program, the Defense Department must encourage base recruitment by employers who can guarantee job opportunities and provide servicemen with information before discharge about public employment services in areas where these men expect to reside. Federal, city, and State governments and other public and private employers should be offered assistance in scheduling periodic visits to military bases in order that as many servicemen as possible can be channeled into promising careers before their tours of duty have ended.
Fourth. The legislation will provide authorization and funding for military recruitment activities. As part of this program, the Defense Department will be given responsibility for compiling job opportunities for servicemen and veterans, to expand the information available on job opportunities and to eliminate needless duplication. The information being compiled by the Department and all job placement activities should be coordinated with the activities of the Veterans' Administration and the nationwide job bank administered by the Department of Labor and State employment agencies. The entire responsibility for soliciting potential employers, collecting job information and assisting servicemen in securing employment will be placed with the new Deputy Assistant Secretary and his organization.
Fifth. To implement the guarantee of a high school diploma or some equivalent in the charter, the Defense Department will identify through the counseling program those servicemen needing such education and provide the necessary facilities and programs. Obviously, many servicemen will be unable to complete their high school education within their 2 years of military service. Moreover, many veterans who have already been discharged do not have a high school education and are virtually unemployable in today's economy. In order to insure a high school diploma for those now in service and those who have been discharged, the legislation will provide that the Defense Department use existing programs and establish regional academies in areas where such programs do not exist, to which any present serviceman or discharged veteran can go to obtain a high school diploma. Existing classroom and other facilities on military installations will be utilized for the purpose to the extent possible. The new regional academies will be run by qualified educators employed by or under contract to the Department of Defense, with curriculums established after consulation with the civilian advisory committee and the Office of Education. Tuition, room, and board will be provided by the Government at these academies or at other comparable civilian facilities. The Deputy Assistant Secretary and the advisory committee will be required in its initial report to advise the Congress whether, and to the extent to which new facilities will have to be established and present facilities converted to use as regional academies.
Sixth. To implement the guarantee for job training while in military service, the Defense Department, under the direction of the new Deputy Assistant Secretary, will be required to coordinate its activities with the Department of Labor and with Federal, State, and local government employment services in order to compile full predictive analyses of the types of job skills for which there will be a demand in the civilian economy during the next decade. Other agencies of the Federal Government will provide the Defense Department with estimates of their manpower needs. This information will be used by the counseling service as a guide for channeling servicemen into job opportunities.
The new Deputy Assistant Secretary, working with the Office of Education, the Department of Labor, and the VA, will plan for training operations to be established on the various bases. The vocational training programs could be run directly by the military, by specific companies, by consortiums of companies, or by training experts under contract.
Seventh. This type of in-service training, however, will not suffice for every serviceman. Many will be ready to return to civilian life and obtain a decent job. But others will not. Furthermore, over 322,000 veterans are now unemployed. Accordingly, the bill authorizes for vocational training what is authorized for education: When adequate training programs do not exist or where these programs cannot rapidly absorb veterans, the Defense Department will be authorized to establish vocational training centers. Centers established by the Department for carrying out its responsibilities under the charter will be open both to servicemen and to veterans of the Vietnam era who were discharged before such programs were established. Again, costs of transportation, room and board, and minimum subsistence will be borne by the Government. The only distinction between the servicemen and the veterans who receive training at Defense Department vocational training centers will be that the latter will not be required to participate in any day-to-day military activities.
Eighth. Training at vocational training centers, however, does not guarantee a job. As an incentive to employers to hire veterans and provide needed on-the-job training, current job-training programs being administered by the Department of Labor will be revised so that anyone who has successfully completed a Defense Department training center program will receive an employability rating from the center. An employer hiring a veteran or serviceman who has participated in a Defense Department sponsored program can use this rating to receive a subsidy of up to 50 percent of the veteran's wages – up to set dollar amounts – for a period of either 3 months, 6 months, or 9 months, depending upon how far short of the minimum job qualifications the veteran, after training, is considered to be. The subsidy will be available not only for established apprenticeship programs but for all skilled and semiskilled occupations. This subsidy will serve to encourage employers to hire veterans and to persuade individuals to undertake preliminary job training. An employer hiring a veteran with a training subsidy, however, must assure that the job is not a temporary one that ends with the subsidy.
Ninth. At present many servicemen return from Vietnam and are immediately discharged. They are cast back to the civilian world with little or no assistance and no chance to even become acquainted with available reorientation assistance. These veterans – more than any others – are in need of immediate advice and assistance. In order to fulfill the obligations of the charter to these servicemen, no one should be returned to the United States and immediately discharged. The bill therefore requires that each serviceman be returned to the United States at least 30 days before the expiration of his service. Special centers can then be established to provide the returning serviceman with all necessary information.
Tenth. One of the first responsibilities of the Deputy Assistant Secretary and his advisory committee under the proposed legislation will be to report to the Congress on the expected costs of implementing the charter. But, as was the case with veterans' programs for World War II and the Korean war, the economic return to society of these types of programs will be many times greater than the amount of the original investment. Furthermore, some of the appropriations for the charter should replace existing funding of other agencies for educational, job training, and welfare benefits.
V. REVISION OF THE GI BILL EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Although once implemented, the Charter of Economic Opportunity will reduce the demand for post-discharge employment and educational assistance, the existing programs must nevertheless be retained to fill the remaining gaps. For example, current VA counseling and assistance programs for veterans should be retained, as should VA/Department of Labor job programs. And for a variety of reasons, many veterans pursuing a high school diploma or vocational training may opt for the present program.
There will undoubtedly continue to be a great demand for the educational assistance provided by the current GI bill. The charter will not be a substitute for the college education that millions of veterans have received under the GI bill. At the same time, the current GI bill must be altered to make it more equitable and more responsive to the growing needs of individual veterans. While educational benefits under the GI bill have increased by 59 percent since 1950, average tuition costs have increased by 200 percent. Even more important, however, is the fact that costs vary widely among colleges, even among the various State supported institutions. At LSU and Texas Tech, for example, costs – tuition and room and board – are at least $500 per year less than at such State-supported schools as Minnesota, Ohio State, and Purdue. Benefits under the current GI bill, however, are the same for all veterans regardless of the college or other institution they attend. The only variable in computing today's benefits is the number of the veterans' dependants, with no consideration given to the costs of obtaining an education at a particular college or the amount a veteran is able to contribute.
I will, therefore, propose new legislation designed to change the method of computing educational benefits under the GI bill. Every veteran entering school after passage of this bill will be entitled to a minimum benefit set at the amount of tuition and fees charged by the State university in his State or $500 per year, whichever is greater. For many veterans this amount will provide more than enough incentive to return to school. However, other veterans will, of course, not be able to attend even a State university – or a high school or vocational education facility, as the case may be – if only tuition is provided. Accordingly, the legislation will provide that additional funds for room and board and other necessary benefits will be provided to veterans, on the basis of need, in addition to the minimum payment. At present, all major colleges and universities are utilizing the services of the College Scholarship Service to assess appropriate financial grants to students. The VA should be required to consult with the College Scholarship Services – and perhaps utilize its services on a contract basis – to assist it in determining each veteran's entitlement to additional educational benefits.
VI. DRUG ADDICTION
In recent years drug addiction and abuse among the country's servicemen has been a growing problem. Between 10 and 15 percent of our servicemen in Vietnam are estimated to be using heroin and other hard drugs as are large numbers of servicemen in Germany, Korea, and elsewhere. When these men return home, they bring their drug problems with them. An estimated 25 percent of the drug addicts in this country are veterans who first used drugs while in the service. Many of these drug-using veterans received less than honorable discharges because of their use of drugs. Under current law, such discharges often make them ineligible for treatment in Veterans' Administration hospitals. Without such treatment and rehabilitation, these drug- dependent veterans will be a burden and a possible menace to society.
The Nixon administration has only belatedly recognized the serious nature of this drug epidemic. It is astonishing that the administration waited so long to take action. It must have known that arrests of servicemen for the use or possession of heroin increased by 400 percent from 1969 to 1970.
What steps have been taken? First, the administration began to test servicemen about to return from Vietnam for heroin use. When these tests indicate heroin use, the serviceman is not released from service until he has been detoxified over a short period of time. At first this period was 10 days – obviously inadequate – but now some servicemen are being referred to VA hospitals for more extended treatment. So far only 150 have been referred, a tiny fraction of the total addicts being discharged.
Second, the Department of Defense has announced that voluntary requests for treatment or the heroin addiction tests may not be used as a basis for court martial or for an other than honorable discharge.
Third, when an addict is discharged, the administration relies upon voluntary participation in VA programs. Recently, the VA increased the number of its hospitals equipped to serve drug addicts from five to 32 facilities with a combined total capacity of 6,000 patients. It is apparent that these new facilities cannot begin to provide for the estimated 80,000 to 90,000 veterans presently in need of drug addiction treatment. While speaking broadly about its grand design to establish these "VA rehabilitation centers," the administration demonstrates its lack of real concern for this problem by quietly seeking to close down major facilities of the National Institute of Mental Health which are already equipped and staffed to treat drug addicts and which now serve many veterans.
Moreover, the administration has tolcrated steps which assure that new VA facilities will not operate at capacity. For example, treatment is presently provided only to veterans who volunteer for it, thus assuring that most of the 32 new centers will have vacant beds. By accepting only voluntary cases, the VA has kept its hospitalized drug patient load to 6,335 for the first 9 months of 1971. While this has effectively prevented overcrowding of VA drug centers, empty beds hardly represent an all-out attack on drug addiction among veterans.
Finally, the administration proposes to provide assistance to veterans with other than honorable discharges who are now ineligible for treatment by having the Department of Defense, on request by a veteran, review his records on a case-by-case basis to change his discharge if the discharge was drug related. This would then make the veteran eligible for VA treatment.
What is needed is a more enlightened and committed approach to this problem. It is not enough to simply set up a new office to coordinate programs, as the administration did in establishing the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse, and then develop some piecemeal solutions.
Senators CRANSTON, HUGHES, and JAVITS and other Members of Congress are to be commended for placing the problem, and solutions of the kind required before the Congress and the American public. Senator CRANSTON in particular has introduced legislation designed primarily to: first, make veterans with other than honorable discharges eligible for VA treatment, second, provide funds for community drug programs which veterans can attend, third, increase drug vocational rehabilitation programs, fourth, establish an outreach program to advise veterans of these programs, and fifth, provide an incentive by specifying that other than honorable discharges will be converted to honorable if the veteran stays off drugs for 1 year.
Senator CRANSTON's proposals contain many of the elements needed to deal with military drug problems, and his bill deserves support. In addition, the following proposals should be added to an effective drug use program:
Each serviceman must be given an effective and realistic education on the addictive capacity of various available drugs and the dangers of such addiction. Many servicemen would not knowingly acquire a heroin habit in Vietnam, which costs very little to support there, if they knew that that same habit may cost $100 per day when they return home. Although the Defense Department began an education program in 1968, the facts indicate that this program is not working. In September 1970, a survey of troops in Vietnam indicated that 60.8 percent of those asked wanted more information on drugs.
To be effective, an education program should employ ex-addicts to participate in small group discussions rather than large, pre-packaged lectures. Drug users must be identified and treatment in the service – along with the nonpunitive nature of that treatment – must be emphasized.
Confidentiality must be imposed upon the medical records of servicemen seeking treatment, a proposal which the administration has not accepted. If outsiders can secure these records, very few men will willingly seek treatment even if there is no chance for court-martial punishment.
VA drug addiction treatment must be made available to all veterans regardless of whether their discharge disqualifies them for other veteran benefits. The administration's case-by-case approach is time consuming and depends upon the addict to initiate an application and then wait several months for a decision. Assistance should be available without regard to the nature of the discharge.
To facilitate treatment, the number of VA rehabilitation centers should be expanded much more rapidly and to a greater extent than is now proposed by the administration.
The VA should be authorized – indeed, directed – to accept involuntary commitments from the State and Federal courts of veterans who are addicts. The availability of VA facilities for such commitments will afford many veterans an opportunity for quality treatment and rehabilitation they otherwise would not have and would help ease the pressure on the woefully inadequate civilian institutions and programs that are grappling with the enormous problems of drug addiction.
To fill the gap between the maximum capacity of VA drug treatment centers and the number of veterans who will require treatment – particularly during the period when new VA facilities are being established – large numbers of community-based programs now in existence should be utilized to treat drug-dependent veterans by contract to VA. Existing NIMH community centers should be utilized wherever possible. Community-based programs should receive a Federal allotment per veteran, and the veteran should have the choice of the program in which to participate, with the allotment following his choice. The veteran could then select the program most suitable to his own needs, with the advice of his counselor, and community-based programs would be given added incentive to structure programs which would fill those needs.
VIII. CONCLUSION
For too long we have deluded ourselves that the problems of veterans were being met. We have believed that by a piecemeal addition of new benefits we were truly dealing with the basic problems. But, as with so many other governmental efforts, the result has been to treat symptoms and not causes. Bandaids rather than surgery have been the prescription.
The plight of the returning Vietnam serviceman must be dealt with now not only in fairness to that serviceman but to preserve the stability and morale of the Armed Forces. If our military does not respond to the needs of young people, it will continue to show the horrible strains and tensions which have recently become an unfortunate part of military life.
When men can view service not as a dead end but as an opportunity along with an obligation, a truly effective fighting force can be created.
Mr. President, I ask that at the conclusion of my remarks a brief explanation of my veterans' proposal be printed in the CONGRESSIONAL RECORD.
There being no objection, the explanation was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
OUTLINE OF MUSKIE VETERANS' PROPOSAL
Approaching veterans' problems by concentrating on traditional post-discharge veterans' programs can only result in help to them that is "too little, too late". A new approach that provides assistance before discharge from active duty is needed. In FY 1970, 15.5% of all enlisted personnel leaving the military did not have a high school diploma, and 77% had less than one year of college education. Over 50% of all servicemen serve in military jobs not convertible to civilian occupations.
The Muskie legislation therefore creates a Charter of Economic Opportunity for servicemen and veterans. This Charter guarantees that each serviceman during his duty hours, and each Vietnam era veteran would be entitled to receive, at government expense, the following:
(a) A high school diploma or any certificate equivalent to such a diploma;
(b) If the serviceman has a high school diploma, the opportunity for refresher or preparatory courses which will make the transition to college far easier;
(c) Training for a civilian job; and
(d) Assistance in securing a job after discharge.
The legislation provides for the creation of a new Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate who is charged with ensuring that the guarantees in the Charter are implemented. The Deputy Assistant Secretary reports to Congress on the specific steps necessary to implement the Charter. The legislation provides for the creation of a new line organization in the Department of Defense (DOD) to report to the Deputy Assistant Secretary and be responsible for administering all Charter programs.
The legislation provides specific directions and guidelines as to how Congress intends the Charter to be implemented. The following directions are included:
A. To require that trained counselors be provided every serviceman from the day he enters active duty.
B. To provide refresher courses for those who enter the service with skills. Many service personnel do not require intensive training or education to be employable after discharge.
C. To provide for on-the-base recruitment by civilian employers and other measures assisting enlisted men to obtain jobs after their discharge.
D. To implement the guarantee of a high school diploma, the legislation requires the DOD to use existing educational institutions or to establish regional academies which any serviceman or veteran can attend to study for a high school diploma.
E. To implement the guarantee for job training, the legislation directs the DOD to use existing vocational training facilities or to establish regional academies which any serviceman or veteran could attend to obtain vocational training. The Defense Department must compile employment opportunity information and establish on-base training operations. Incentives are offered to employers to hire serviceman or veterans who completed a job-training program.
F. To require the Defense Department to return every serviceman to the U.S. at least 3O days prior to discharge in order to provide adequate re-orientation assistance.