June 21, 1974
Page 20468
Mr. ERVIN. Mr. President, I yield to Senator MUSKIE as much time as he may require and then I will yield to the Senator from Illinois.
Mr. PERCY. Mr. President, may I just have 30 seconds?
Mr. MUSKIE. Yes, I yield.
Mr. PERCY. While my esteemed friend and colleague, Senator JAVITS, is present, I would like to pay particular tribute to him for writing in the tax expenditure provisions in the bill.
Mr. President, I will have some more extensive comments on those provisions when I later make my comments on the bill. While the Senator from New York is on the floor, I want to pay tribute to him for this, and much other, extremely valuable assistance that he provided.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Maine is recognized.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I join in the commendations that have been expressed on the floor of the Senate this morning, and I especially would like to direct my comments to the distinguished Senator from North Carolina.
The observations made by Senator ALLEN are most appropriate. I have considered it a privilege to serve under Senator ERVIN's leadership during the past 2 years. He should be complimented upon the record of that leadership.
Mr. President, I join the distinguished Senator from North Carolina and the distinguished Senator from Illinois (Mr. PERCY) in urging adoption of the conference report on H.R. 7130, the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974.
Mr. President, this legislation is the best kind of reform measure – self-reform. It will give Congress the means to deal in an orderly and comprehensive fashion with our most important decisions – those of budget policy and national priorities.
The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 is perhaps the most important bill Congress will consider this session.
It is designed to give Congress the information and staff necessary to determine each year how much money the Government has, how much it should take in, and how much it should spend, before determining what to buy with the taxpayers' dollars.
During the past half century, the Congress has witnessed a steady erosion of its control over the budget. In contrast, we have seen a consistent escalation of executive influence over budget and fiscal policies.
The Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 will give us the means to reverse that erosion. It can reform the most serious shortcomings in the system by which Congress currently considers the budget.
It will provide the Congress with additional resources it needs, both in terms of staff and information, to make independent decisions on budget policies.
It will establish a realistic timetable for congressional consideration of the budget, enabling Congress to complete its work on the budget before the beginning of each new fiscal year.
It will, for the first time, provide Congress with the mechanism for overall, comprehensive consideration of budget policies.
Mr. President, I think it is appropriate to pay tribute to a staff drafting group which was of great assistance to the conferees in the resolution of the differences between the House and Senate versions and in the drafting of the conference report. That group consisted of Robert Bland Smith, Jr.; Herbert N. Jasper; Alvin From; W. P. Goodwin, Jr.; and J. Robert Vastine; with help from Harry Littell and Larry Monaco of the Legislative Counsel's Office and Allen Schick of the Library of Congress.
The distinguished Senator from North Carolina (Mr. ERVIN) has already explained, in some detail, the anti-impoundment provision in the conference report. I would like now to discuss the major elements of the budget reform provisions of the conference report to which Senator ERVIN has alluded.
First, the conference report, as did the Senate bill, calls for the establishment of a Congressional Budget Office – CBO – as an agency of the Congress. In agreeing to a Congressional Budget Office, the conferees anticipate that the Budget Committees in both Houses will have their own staff.
The CBO will meet our need for a highly competent staff to guide us in fiscal policy and budgetary considerations. It will be a full-time, year-round, nonpartisan staff that will compare with the General Accounting Office and will provide Congress with the knd of information and analyses it needs to work on an equal footing with the executive branch.
In my view, the creation of the CBO is an essential element of the budget process established in this bill.
Second, the conference report includes a workable and realistic timetable for congressional consideration of the budget. The cornerstones of this reformed budget process are two budget resolutions. The first enacted by May 15 would, in effect, establish the congressional budget for the fiscal year beginning the next October 1. That resolution would establish appropriate overall spending levels and recommended subtargets by functional categories as well as appropriate levels for revenues and projected and desirable surpluses or debts.
The second budget resolution must be enacted by September 15. This resolution would provide Congress with the opportunity to reassess its initial budget and priority decisions just before the beginning of the new fiscal year – taking into account the most current economic data and the intervening actions on individual spending measures. If the latest revenue estimates and the individual spending measures previously enacted differ from the appropriate levels established in that second budget resolution, the resolution will also direct committees of jurisdiction to recommend the legislative action necessary to reconcile those differences.
Congress will then complete its action on the budget by September 25 by enacting the reconciliation bill mandated by the second concurrent resolution.
While the enactment dates for the two budget resolutions are the keys to the timetable, the conference report includes other deadlines that are important to the success of the reformed budget process. It calls for the President to submit a new "current services" budget to Congress by the previous November 10. It requires the President to submit his final budget 15 days after Congress convenes, the same as in current law. And it calls for all spending legislation to be enacted by the 7th day after Labor Day.
Third, an essential part of the reformed budget process is the completion of consideration of authorization measures, which must be enacted before Congress can act upon appropriations bills.
The conference report, as did the Senate version, calls for a May 15 deadline for committee reports on authorization measures, with no enactment deadline. In addition, the conference report requires the President to submit his authorization request to Congress a year in advance so that the authorization committees can get a head start on meeting their deadlines.
Fourth, the conference report requires that the first budget resolution contain enough detailed data to insure a meaningful debate on budget and program priorities each spring. And it mandates additional backup information necessary for that debate be included in the committee report.
Further, the conference report includes a workable procedure for translating the functional breakdowns in the budget resolutions into congressional committee and appropriations subcommittee allocations. This procedure is necessary to insure effective scorekeeping during consideration of spending and revenue measures.
Fifth, the conference report insures, as did the Senate bill, that all spending measures be sent to the President as they are completed, though they would not become effective until October 1 or later. This insurance is necessary to prevent the President from undercutting the congressional budget process by vetoes of spending bills just before the beginning of the fiscal year. And the conference report provides, as did the Senate bill, that the scope of the reconciliation process be broad enough to generate a comprehensive review of the congressional budget actions each September.
Mr. President, this legislation represents a reaffirmation of the determination of members of both political parties to establish an open, informative and thorough way for Congress to handle the Federal budget.
Those of us who have worked with this legislation for more than a year believe it will work.
However, it will not work unless Senators – and that includes all of us – are willing to change their style of living in this body.
It is going to mean that we are going to have to keep our noses to the grindstone on a year-round basis to meet the deadlines set out in the bill. It is going to require that our entire staffs are attuned to what is happening in the budget process for many weeks in a row.
Mr. President, in drafting this legislation in the Committees on Government Operations and Rules and Administration, as well as on the Senate floor, we have attempted to develop a procedure for congressional consideration of the budget that is both disciplined and flexible.
That is a difficult balance to achieve. But I am hopeful we have accomplished it.
To be sure, particularly in its first years, the implementation of the process may be erratic and deadlines may be missed. But the process in this legislation is flexible enough to survive a trying transition period. And it will not collapse as long as the Members of Congress want it to work.
All told, some 35 or 40 Senators contributed to the development of this bill. And the best guarantee for the success of the process established in this bill is for the Members of Congress to exhibit the same kind of determination to implement it that they did to draft it.
Mr. President, this legislation is too important for us to allow it to fail.
Mr. President, in closing I wish to give a special word of personal appreciation to the distinguished Senator from Montana (Mr. METCALF).
Senator METCALF was elected chairman of the Subcommittee on Budgeting, Management, and Expenditures more than a year ago in the Committee on Government Operations. He proceeded with the work that responsibility imposed upon him at a time when there was a great deal of pessimism as to whether or not all of the complex problems this legislation posed could be resolved – and resolved in a meaningful piece of legislation in this Congress.
It is because of his persistence and determined commitment to that objective more than any other single force that we are now acting on this conference report and about to send a bill to the President for his signature.
I compliment the distinguished Senator.
Mr. ERVIN. Mr. President, I will say to the Senator from Arkansas that I promised to yield briefly to the Senator from Montana, but first I want to say that the Senator from Maine has given an excellent analysis of the major provisions of the bill, and it would be impossible for me to over-magnify the great work he displayed in making this bill possible.
Also, I would like to join in his tribute to the Senator from Montana, who conducted the spadework hearings that contributed to the bill, and he also made magnificent contributions to the bill.