April 23, 1974
Page 11298
THE COST OF LIVING ACT
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a cosponsorship statement of my distinguished colleague from Florida, Senator CHILES, on S. 3352 be printed in the RECORD.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
STATEMENT BY SENATOR CHILES
Mr. President, On April 30th price control authority will expire and the Cost of Living Council will cease to exist. This will happen at a time when inflation is at its highest level in twenty-three years. It is senseless that we should be dismantling our government machinery and strip away the policy instruments which are designed to deal with the inflation when there is so much inflationary pressure building in the economy.
On April 4th I made a floor speech outlining the approach I think would be most desirable. I called for stand-by authority on price controls to allow them to be used if and when that becomes necessary in crucial commodities. I called for some specific "jaw boning" authority for the government to have the ability to keep labor and management talking to each other until agreements are reached which are in the public interest. And I called for authority for the Cost of Living Council to be able to enforce commitments made by producers as price controls are lifted.
I think these are necessary elements to deal with inflation as we phase out price controls. I will continue to argue for these.
On April 11th Senator Muskie introduced legislation (S. 3352) which will extend the life of the Cost of Living Council for one year and empower it with monitoring authority. Under the Cost of Living Act, the Council's authority to impose or reimpose price controls will expire on April 30th but the Council would continue and have as its function the review of prices, supplies, and economic activity to keep the President and the Congress informed on how the economy is working without price controls.
I endorse the Cost of Living Act but along with the Senator from Maine I think that this is the minimum that we can do and that we should indeed go further than this if we want to be effective in restoring price stability to our economy. Just because we are fed up with price controls doesn't mean that we should abandon them. But as a minimum we need to have a central focus for keeping an inflation alert to keep public officials and the public at large informed on what is happening. Inflation will not disappear just because we don't look at it. I urge all my colleagues to support this bill as the very least that we should responsibly do to maintain the purchasing power of the public.