March 14, 1973
Page 7740
By Mr. MUSKIE (for himself and Mr. ERVIN)
S. 1214. A bill to amend the Budget and Accounting Act, 1921, so as to provide the Congress with information relating to budget requests of the various departments and establishments of the Government. Referred to the Committee on Government Operations.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I introduce today with Senator ERVIN a bill to amend the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921 so as to provide the Congress with information relating to budget requests of the various departments and establishments of the Government. On January 31 of this year, I introduced S. 676, the Public Budgeting and Rulemaking Act of 1973, which contains the same objectives as the bill I am introducing today. Since January 31 I have worked with Senator ERVIN in drafting this legislation to formulate a simpler and more effective method of providing Congress the budget information it needs to perform its constitutional role.
This bill would further the objective of open government by opening budget activities to the appropriate committees of Congress. In addition, this legislation would enable Congress to be involved in the budgetary process from its inception. While it would not interfere with the process of preparing the budget it would permit Congress to monitor OMB contact with an agency or department prior to the submission of their final budgets to Congress.
The present practice allows OMB, through the review and comment process, to decide alone how a program is to be run and funded. The Congress enters the process only when it is nearly complete. In order for Congress to exercise its proper constitutional role it must have available to it the "original thinking" of the agencies. What we get now is deceptive information, ground into pabulum and spoon fed to us by the OMB.
This bill establishes a procedure for the timely review of this information, a right which Congress was clearly given in section 206 of the Budget and Accounting Act of 1921. Without such timely and complete information the Congress will have a very difficult time in implementing the thoughtful reform proposals for a responsible legislative role in the budget making process outlined by the Joint Study Committee on Budget Control in their recent recommendations.