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into activities which will assist them in regaining
self-reliance and aid in their return to normal life.
In other words, such payments are merely one more
"tool" available to the professional personnel of DM &
S for use in the treatment of patients and members.
Payments under section 618 are an expense for medical
care and are chargeable to appropriations for the
medical care program. They do not fall within the
category of benefits otherwise payable to a guardian.
VA Op. Gen. Couns. Prec. 64-90, supra (emphasis added).
Veterans Omnibus Health Care Act of 1976, Pub. L. 94-581,
section 105(a)(3), 90 Stat. 2845, replaced the provision calling
for the payment of nominal remuneration with one calling for
payments at rates not less than specified in the Fair Labor
Standards Act of 1938 (29 U.S.C. section 201, et seq.). We have
found no indication that, by that change, Congress intended to
change the nature of the payment as a gratuity or award, and,
indeed, in the ruling, the VA General Counsel took no notice of
that change in 1990.
The VA General Counsel’s convictions that patients are not
being recompensed for services and the payments to them are an
expense for medical care reinforces our conclusion that
distributions from the VA Special Therapeutic and Rehabilitation
Activities Fund are not merely payments for services rendered.
H. Respondent’s Arguments
Respondent distinguishes payments made to taxpayers under
legislatively-provided-social-welfare-benefit programs (which
respondent has ruled are excludable from income) from
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