September 1, 1976
Page 28795
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, may I say, first of all, the points made by the distinguished Senator from Oklahoma with respect to the budget process are points with which I am entirely in agreement.
We are concerned about backdoor spending not only in those forms that have been traditional but in any new forms, including loan guarantees, that develop, because if they develop they are a temptation to all committees and all program constituencies to seek the new form of backdoor spending to escape the discipline of the appropriation process.
With respect to this one, it was intended to be very narrowly focused upon a particular situation. I think I could cover that by making these observations. First, there are clearly instances in which communities have planned projects and taken them to the construction stage, or the financing stage, only to find that their ability to finance the project has been undermined either by reason of the fact that the impoundment of Federal funds has delayed funding of the project; or second, with the passage of time, inflation has eaten into their ability to raise local funds; or third, the failure of the Federal Government to reimburse communities that advanced their own funds to cover the Federal share of previous years that have not been funded.
So for these very special reasons, which are hopefully nonrecurring reasons, Senator BUCKLEY offered this amendment to provide some relief. It is my impression that primarily he was concerned with those instances in which there had been failure to reimburse communities for funds advanced under the 1966 law to cover the Federal share of the cost of projects. In all candor, the Federal Government has been very remiss in not completing that reimbursement program. It is no longer available to communities and has not been since 1972.
So the Federal Government is several years in arrears in reimbursing communities that advanced the Federal share of the cost.
For that reason, Senator BUCKLEY, I think, persuaded the majority of the committee that there was some justice in this approach; if the Federal Government still is not in a position to reimburse in cash, the Federal Government ought to make available limited credit to cover the amount of the funds tied up in non-reimbursement.
I think that is an accurate description of the committee attitude about this amendment, and it is not the kind of open-ended new backdoor spending that the Senator from Oklahoma is justifiably concerned about, and I hope that with that explanation we can put the amendment in the proper perspective.
I yield to my good friend from New Mexico.
Mr. DOMENICI. I simply wish to say to the Senator from Oklahoma that Senator BUCKLEY is not here but we conferred with him, and obviously the committee listened to him when he presented it. I think he had some very specific communities in his State in mind and I think they were basically of the type Senator MUSKIE has described.
I do not think we are talking about the lack of credit based upon poor management in the general sense or lack of credit based upon them not wanting to pay what they ought to be paying for, municipal services. I think he intended that it be the kind of situation where they could not get financing, because they had relied rather heavily upon the previous policies of our country that encouraged them to go on and build expecting rather rapid reimbursement for that share which was the Federal Government's. I think we can give the Senator assurance that when we go to conference we will see that we make every effort to limit it to that kind of situation not only in the State of New York, but also obviously if it exists anywhere in the country.
Mr. BELLMON. Mr. President, could I have 2 more minutes?
Mr. MUSKIE. Yes, I yield 2 more minutes.
Mr. BELLMON. I am very much reassured by the statements of the floor manager and assistant floor manager of the bill. It appears that this language is intended to deal with a specific problem. It is not a general open door for local governments that are in trouble to escape paying their part of the cost of these facilities.
It also appears that the language is needed, because if the Federal Government has not kept faith with these local units of government obviously we ought not to make it impossible for them to continue with the kind of treatment facilities that they need.
The only thing I suggest to the floor manager and other members of the committee who may be on the conference is that perhaps we could have some fairly explicit report language that lays this out so at least the legislative history will be extremely clear.
Mr. MUSKIE. I will assure the Senator of my commitment to try to do that. I do think the language needs some refinement and I think the Senate conferees, the distinguished Senator from West Virginia, the chairman of the Public Works Committee, would concur in that objective.
Mr. RANDOLPH. I concur. I understand the concern expressed by the able Senator from Oklahoma (Mr. BELLMON) and the assurance that has been given by Senator MUSKIE, Senator DOMENICI, and now agreed to by me. As we go to conference, I hope we will assuage any problem that he would have at the moment.
Mr. BELLMON. I thank the distinguished floor manager.