April 25, 1975
Page 11940
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I rise to speak not so much on this amendment as I do in my capacity as chairman of the Budget Committee.
I simply want to make it clear that in terms of the budget resolution which the Budget Committee will take up on the floor of the Senate next Tuesday, the outlays that would be mandated by this bill could be accommodated by the overall spending ceiling which the Budget Committee will recommend.
We were fully informed as to this program by the Committee on Appropriations in the report the committee filed with us on March 15. We considered this and other proposals for recovery programs; and the totals assumed in this bill – in the form in which it appears on the floor of the Senate – can be accommodated under the overall spending ceiling.
Let me be a little more specific, so that the Senate will understand what I mean.
This bill would provide, as I understand it, $5.5 billion in new budget authority, $485 million in loan authority, and $93 million in the liquidation of existing contract authority, for a total of slightly more than $6 billion for the acceleration of existing Federal programs and projects in order to increase employment immediately.
It is estimated by the committee that this legislation could produce more than 1 million jobs, including 310,000 jobs for adults, for 1 year; 920,000 summer youth jobs, and about 250,000 part-time jobs for students attending college.
The bill greatly increases funding for the two major Federal approaches to the unemployment problem: funding programs for the direct creation of jobs such as public service jobs, and funding for indirect creation of jobs through accelerated Federal construction, building, and purchase programs.
As I understand, it would add $1.6 billion to funds already appropriated in fiscal year1975 for public service job title VI authorizations. It would add $3.7 billion for the creation of jobs, Government stimulation of construction, manufacturing, and other economic activities, such as acceleration of ongoing public works projects, rural water and sewer grants, improvements in modernization of veterans hospitals, reforestation and timber stand improvements, expansion and upgrading of facilities for Federal parks, forests, and other Federal lands, increased assistance to small business, and other items.
The outlay implications for fiscal year 1976 total $3.7 billion. That can be accommodated within the $4.5 billion that the Budget Committee assumed for recovery job creating programs of this nature. The total of $600 million already had been enacted earlier this year, and another $200 million was approved yesterday in connection with the emergency housing legislation.
Reciting this does not suggest that any Member should adopt these kinds of programs, rather than some other kind, or no programs for creating jobs. But this seemed to us to be a responsible program, initiated on the House side, which was already moving through committees and could be approved quickly, to begin the job of putting people back to work. For that reason, we included it within our overall ceiling on spending.
Some of us would have preferred more than this; but the result, approved by a vote of 13 to 2 in the Budget Committee, assumed this kind of total, and it seems to me that the Senate would like to have that information from the Budget Committee.
I hope that in more normal times, we will have the report of the Budget Committee and will act upon it before we act on the programs which comprise its elements. But we live in unusual times.
We were faced with this recession in January, so we had to act quickly, and in advance of the full implementation of the budget process.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, will the Senator yield me another minute?
Mr. MANSFIELD. I yield.
Mr. MUSKIE. With the cooperation of other committees, we were able to get to the consideration of these matters and the proposals, and I am happy to add my endorsement of this program to that of the distinguished Senator from Arkansas and the Appropriations Committee.
Mr. McCLELLAN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
Mr. MUSKIE. I yield.
Mr. McCLELLAN. To make it definitely clear, the enactment of this bill, including the amount for public service jobs, is within the ceiling that is recommended by the Budget Committee.
Mr. MUSKIE. That is as I understand it.
Mr. McCLELLAN. Nothing then is added to the deficit than that which is contemplated by the Senator's committee.
Mr. MUSKIE. The Senator is correct.
Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, will the Senator yield on that point?
Mr. MUSKIE. I yield.
Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I commend the Senator for making this statement. I think it is important, if the Budget Committee process is going to work, that these items be looked at in this context.
As I understand it, the outlays we had in the Budget Committee concurrent resolution are $4.5 billion, and the outlays as a result of this bill are $3.7 billion. We previously had authorized and appropriated outlays of $600 million and $200 million on other matters. If we add the $3.7 billion, the $600 million, and the $200 million, we get exactly $4.5 billion.
Mr. MUSKIE. That is correct.
Mr. NUNN. Would it be a fair assumption to say that if we had any more outlays under any type program, it would exceed the Budget Committee's concurrent resolution?
Mr. MUSKIE. Yes. The only way additional outlays for this purpose could be approved would be to take them out of other functions of the Government or to raise the ceiling. Let us understand that implication.
Mr. NUNN. Unless there were a tradeoff.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The time of the Senator has expired.
Mr. BELLMON. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
Mr. MANSFIELD. I yield.
Mr. BELLMON. Mr. President, I join in the statements made by the chairman of the Budget Committee I sat through the hearings, and I agree with his conclusion that the amount of outlays contemplated in this bill is in keeping with the conclusion of the Budget Committee.
I point out, as the distinguished Senator from Georgia has just done, that this virtually uses up all the funds that the Budget Committee has budgeted for this purpose. But I feel that since the bill has moved so far toward passage and since these programs can be put into operation quickly, this is the wisest course for the Senate. I am going to support the bill and vote for it, and I will urge the President to sign it.