November 13, 1975
Page 36463
SECOND CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the Budget Committee has reported the second concurrent resolution on the budget and has filed its report on the resolution.
When the second budget resolution is adopted, Congress will be placing legally binding ceilings on Federal spending — on its own spending — for fiscal year 1976. Under the provisions of the Budget Act, legislation which would cause those ceilings to be breached may be subject to a point of order.
On May 14 of this year, Congress adopted its first budget resolution. We agreed that the Nation's budget goals could best be met with spending levels of $367 billion and revenues of $298.2 billion that would produce a fiscal year 1976 deficit of $68.8 billion.
For the first time, we acted to set before the Nation our comprehensive view of national priorities and a plan for Federal spending that would promote economic recovery and stable long-term growth.
We adopted spending priorities somewhat different from those of the administration last May. While some increases were allowed for defense, the committee rejected administration proposals for major cutbacks in social programs and has allowed for increases, particularly where programs meet needs that are aggravated by the recession.
Congress has followed the program set forth in the first budget resolution. The Congress has not enacted more spending programs than anticipated in that budget. In the 6 months since the first resolution, the Budget Committee and the Members of the Senate have demonstrated that Congress has the discipline to exert its influence over the Nation's financial affairs and to lay a foundation for long-term recovery and stability.
The second resolution, as reported today by the committee, provides:
Revenues of $300.8 billion;
Budget authority of $406.2 billion;
Outlays of $375.6 billion;
Deficit of $74.8 billion, and
A public debt ceiling of $623.2 billion.
The resolution generally adheres to the priority decisions we made last May. It is designed to accommodate the remaining appropriations bills, and some important legislative initiatives which remain before the Congress this fiscal year.
The committee believes that these spending and revenue limits will provide a sound fiscal policy to meet our urgent national goals in an economy recovering from recession.
The second budget resolution raises the spending target of the first resolution by $8.6 billion and the deficit target by $6 billion. These increases derive essentially from higher estimates of the cost of existing programs and not from new spending programs. These automatic increases exceed $12 billion, an amount greater than the difference between the first and second resolutions.
Room has been allowed for funding of high priority areas identified in the first budget resolution — job creating programs, railroad finance, and energy initiatives. Nevertheless, the result is an extremely tight budget which means that the spending discipline Congress has shown to date must continue.
At the urgent request of the administration, the committee considered the President's security assistance request including the pending Middle East package. The committee voted to increase its previously adopted totals by $1.6 billion in budget authority and outlays by $0.5 billion. This increase will accommodate the amounts by which the new Middle East request exceeds the amounts requested in the President's February budget. The committee took no position on the merits of the Middle East proposal, but did not want to delay the expeditious consideration of this request.
The resolution also provides totals for the transition quarter, based on estimates by the Congressional Budget Office which reflect the committee's priority recommendations for fiscal 1976 and the fiscal and economic assumptions underlying the budget resolution's fiscal 1976 totals.
As I am sure my colleagues have observed, the House of Representatives has just passed its version of the second concurrent resolution. For the information of my colleagues, the spending and deficit total in the Senate version of the resolution are lower than the figures voted by the House, when comparable assumptions are made. The House committee, for example, assumed higher estimates of revenues from offshore oil leases and tax reform legislation. When these assumptions are accounted for, the totals in the Senate resolution are $291 million less in outlays and $291 million less in deficit than their House counterparts.
Under the present Senate floor schedule, our hope is that the Senate budget resolution will be taken up by the Senate next Tuesday, with debate limited by statute to 15 hours.
Mr. President, the budget resolution has received bipartisan support in the Budget Committee. It represents a workable and working plan for promoting economic recovery and for putting Federal dollars where they are most needed. It reaffirms the priorities which Congress established in the first resolution, priorities which the Senate has honored since last May.
I urge my colleagues to study the resolution and report. Public confidence in congressional economic policy requires decisive action, and I ask the support of all Senators for this historic and promising resolution.