PENSION APPROPRIATION BILL. FEBRUARY 11, 1913.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union and ordered to be printed. Mr. BARTLETT, from the Committee on Appropriations, submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 28730.] The Committee on Appropriations, in presenting the bill making appropriations for the payment of invalid and other pensions for the fiscal year 1914, submit the following in explanation thereof: The estimates on which the bill is based will be found on page 413 of the Book of Estimates for 1914 and amount to $185,220,000. The accompanying bill appropriates $180,300,000. The following statement gives, by appropriate title of expenditure, the amounts appropriated for 1913, the estimates for 1914, and the amounts recommended in the accompanying bill for 1914: The committee recommends the enactment of the following provision at the end of the bill: From and after July first, nineteen hundred and thirteen, no pension shall be paid to a nonresident who is not a citizen of the United States except for actual disabilities incurred in the service. In the hearings before the committee it is stated that $30,000,000 will be required to make payments of pensions under the act of May 11, 1912, during the fiscal year 1914, and that the annual value of the HR-62-3-vol 1- -59 pension roll at this time, exclusive of the increase under the act of May 11, 1912, is $150,000,000. The amount for fees of examining surgeons is increased $100,000 for the fiscal year 1914, and a further like sum has been submitted as a deficiency for the current fiscal year 1913, both sums being necessary, as stated by the Commissioner of Pensions, because of the decision of the Interior Department that disability claims under the act of May 11, 1912, involve medical examinations. The following table, taken from the report of the Commissioner of Pensions, shows the amounts paid by the Government in pensions to soldiers, sailors, and marines, their widows, minor children, and dependent relatives, on account of military and naval service since the foundation of the Republic: War of the Revolution (estimate).. War with Mexico (service pension). War with Spain and insurrection in Philippine Islands.. Unclassified...... Total disbursements for pensions.... The following table, also compiled from the annual reports of the Commissioner of Pensions, shows the number of pensioners on the roll, the annual value of pensions, the disbursements on account of pensions, the number of original applications filed, and the number of original claims allowed each fiscal year from 1879 to 1912, inclusive: Full amount of fees paid to attorneys... At the close of the year there remained unpaid 13,330 cases of all classes REFERENCES. $138, 837.72 514, 631. 36 89.64 120. 19 93.28 177.44 267.08 53. 15 332.66 34.40 52.00 Navy pension fund.-Section 4755 of the Revised Statutes provides that Navy pensions shall be paid out of the "Navy pension fund," upon an appropriation by Congress, so far as the same may be sufficient. The naval pension fund at present amounts to $14,000,000, bearing interest at the rate of 3 per cent per annum, and is created under the provisions of sections 4751 and 4752 of the Revised Statutes. The payments on account of Navy pensions during the fiscal year 1912 aggregated $5,319,822.08. Number of pensioners in each State and Territory, each insular possession, and each foreign country on the rolls June 30, 1912, and the amounts paid therein during the fiscal year 1912. Number of pensioners in each State and Territory, each insular possession, etc.-Contd. Pensioners residing in States and Territories and payments to them.. Total.... Payments by Treasury Department (Treasury settlements)........ Total payments on account of Army and Navy pensions for the fiscal year.. The number of Civil War pensioners on the roll at the end of the fiscal year 1911 was 529,884, and at the end of the fiscal year 1912 was 497,263. The number of Civil War survivors on the pension roll who died during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1911, was 35,243, and the number who died during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1912, was 33,891. |