September 3, 1975
Page 27395
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the bill before the Senate, H.R. 8121, makes appropriations for the Departments of State, Commerce, the judiciary, and related agencies.
I wish to congratulate Chairman McCLELLAN and subcommittee Chairman PASTORE for the work they and their members have done on the appropriations bill for State, Justice and Commerce, the judiciary, and related agencies which is accommodated by the spending targets set by the budget resolution.
H.R. 8121 make appropriations for programs that cut across 7 of the 16 functional categories. The total budget authority in this bill is $6.1 billion. The Budget Committee staff's analysis of the bill shows that it is at least $200 million below the totals which the Budget Committee contemplated for the programs in those seven categories which are funded by H.R. 8121.
The Senate committee version of H.R. 8121 is nearly half a billion dollars above the House version. At first glance, that might seem to mean trouble. But in every case, the Senate Appropriations Committee increases are within the targets which the Budget Committee used as building blocks for the various functional categories to arrive at the overall spending ceiling.
The amounts for some specific programs within those categories are higher than the figures which the Budget Committee and the Senate-House conferees had before them. But the totals still fit — at this point in the session — within the margins which the Budget Committee allowed for changes in specific programs within those functional categories.
For example, the Appropriations Committee increased the budget for the Economic Development Administration and for managing economic assistance programs from the House figure of $314 million to the figure before you of some $481 million.
The Appropriations Committee's reason for raising that figure is sound. It will make available some $92 million for public works projects, business loans and assistance to distressed communities that will create or save more than 40,000 jobs. In these times of high unemployment and economic uncertainty, that is good Federal policy, particularly when it can be done without breaching the budget target.
The Appropriations Committee used similar reasoning in raising the amount of money available for loans to small businesses, many of which have been hurt by the recession. The Senate committee authorizes $250 million for such loans. The House authorized $150 million. The Senate Budget Committee originally assumed the lower figure in its calculations on a budget target. In conference, House Members argued for a higher figure and the conferees settled on a target of $450 million for Small Business Administration loans. The Appropriations Committee figure is well below that target. The Senate committee and the House both would allow $100 million for disaster relief, again a figure that matches the Budget Committee target.
The one area in which H.R. 8121 goes beyond the levels which the Budget Committee used in calculating its overall budget target is in appropriations for the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has increased spending in that area by $92 million, but while that specific program is up, there was enough margin in the categorical function covering law enforcement and justice to accommodate the increase.
Again, my congratulations to Senators McCLELLAN and PASTORE and the members of the Appropriations Committee. This is the kind of close match that I am sure all of us had in mind when we created the new budget process for Congress.