July 17, 1975
Page 23338
Mr. BROOKE. I yield 3 minutes to the Senator from Maine.
Mr. MUSKIE. I thank my good friend, the Senator from Massachusetts and the distinguished manager of the bill.
Mr. President, I have tried to develop the habit, in connection with spending bills, of giving the Budget Committee's evaluation in terms of the first concurrent resolution; and I would not want to ignore this particular piece of legislation. So, in my capacity as chairman of the Budget Committee, I am glad to report to the Senate that the amounts included in the education appropriations bill fit within the budget targets for education, manpower and social services.
But, Mr. President, I do wish to express my concern about one aspect of the conference report (94-237) on the education appropriations bill (H.R. 5901). In two instances the conferees agreed to spending figures lower than that proposed by the Senate. The conferees, in resolving amendment 4, dropped the $10 million appropriation for State equalization plans that had been proposed by the Senate; in resolving amendment 12, the conferees agreed to provide $11 million for holding harmless impact aid recipients — an amount $40 million less than the Senate proposed. In both cases the justification was, in effect, that the estimates for spending were not yet firm and that funding for these items would be provided in a supplemental appropriations bill for education.
Mr. President, supplemental appropriations are a potential threat to the budget process, particularly when those supplementals are offered after the second budget resolution has transformed the budget targets into budget ceilings.
If more money is expected to be appropriated this year for education, we will need to know how much to provide in the budget when we act upon the second budget resolution. Moreover, we need this information to determine whether the current functional targets are in jeopardy of being exceeded.
But the most important fact about this bill remains that the amounts appropriated fit within the budget resolution we passed last spring. Specifically, the 1976 appropriations for education from this bill and from last year's forward funding total $7.2 billion — an amount that is somewhat less than our committee staff estimates of the education funding in the first concurrent resolution.
For that, I believe that the distinguished Senator from Washington (Mr. MAGNUSON), the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. BROOKE), and the members of the committee should be commended.
Mr. MAGNUSON. Mr. President, will the Senator yield me one-half minute?
Mr. MUSKIE. I yield.
Mr. MAGNUSON. The Senator from Massachusetts and I are impressed by the Senator's concern about supplementals. That is correct. We have had several supplementals this year on HEW matters. It is pretty hard to pass a regular bill when supplementals keep coming up. And there have been administrative requests. But on this regular bill, we have kept the potential for supplementals down. I appreciate the Senator discussing it with us here today.
Mr. MUSKIE. I thank the Senator.
This comment was directed more toward the OMB and the agencies downtown than to the committee.
Mr. BROOKE. Mr. President, Chairman MAGNUSON has expressed our opinion on the supplementals, and I certainly agree with him wholeheartedly.
I say to the distinguished Senator from Maine, who is also the distinguished chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, that we are very pleased to have his remarks in the RECORD at this time. We think the committee is performing a great service. It appears that they are going to speak on every appropriations bill that is presented to the Senate, as to whether it is below or above the Budget Committee's proposals. We are very pleased that we were able to stay below the budget proposal.
We appreciate the clear signal that the Senator from Maine is sending to these who should be listening. We are very grateful.