September 29, 1975
Page 30719
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the conference report on S. 1247, the Military Construction Authorization Act, authorizes $3.5 billion for military construction and family housing during fiscal year 1976. This is a 9 percent reduction from the administration's request and slightly higher than originally passed by the Senate.
New budget authority for military construction makes little impact on outlays in this year's budget because these programs spend out very slowly. However, we should all recognize that our acceptance of this conference report will result in substantial outlays in fiscal year 1977, just as last year's budget authority for these programs results in substantial outlays this year.
As chairman of the Committee on the Budget, I wish to commend the conferees for their diligence in keeping this bill within the range of our targets.
But I wish to remind my colleagues that major additional reductions in the national defense function will be required to reach Congress overall target. Some of this additional reduction will be obtained through our agreement to the conference report on military procurement authorizations. But further cuts will have to be made largely in the appropriations process if we are to achieve the first budget resolution targets of $100.7 billion in budget authority and $90.7 billion in outlays. These further cuts are on the order of $3 to $4 billion in both budget authority and outlays. The numbers I have cited do not take account of the recent Middle East agreements, for which no administration request has yet been received.
In closing, let me congratulate the manager of this bill, my very distinguished friend, the able senior Senator from Missouri (Mr. SYMINGTON) and other Senate members of the conference for their commendable work in bringing this measure as close to the Senate-passed level as possible. I support the conference report on S. 1247.