August 4, 1976
Page 25565
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, will the Senator yield?
Mr. BAYH. Yes, I yield.
Mr. MUSKIE;. Mr. President, the Senate has before it the conference report on HR. 14234, the transportation and related agencies appropriation bill. I intend to vote in favor of the report, but first I would like to express my appreciation to the Senate conferees for the excellent job they did in conference.
As agreed to in conference, the bill provides $5.3 billion in budget authority and $13.8 billion in outlays, including $10 billion in outlays from prior year authority. This is well within the allocation to the Transportation Subcommittee pursuant to section 302(b) of the Congressional Budget Act, and therefore there should be ample room left for any necessary supplemental appropriations.
Even more significant from a budget perspective is the conference result on the issue of a highway program obligation ceiling. The Senate version of the bill provided a $7.2 billion fiscal 1977 obligation ceiling for the highway program. The House bill did not. In conference the Senate conferees were able to prevail, and the Senate's ceiling provision has been agreed to by the House.
It is vitally important to the successful and complete implementation of the congressional budget process that a ceiling on highway obligations be provided. Had the conference accepted the House position and removed the obligation ceiling, the effect would have been to provide the highway program with a special exemption from the spending discipline of the new budget process. There would have been no protection at all from a sudden and unexpected upsurge in highway obligations that would increase budget outlays and the Federal deficit above the levels provided by the budget resolution. The Congress would have been powerless to prevent that from happening, and would have been faced with the equally undesirable options of accepting the increased outlays and enlarged deficit, or reducing spending on other priorities in order to stay within the budget totals.
Now this cannot happen. It cannot happen because the Senate conferees were successful in protecting the Senate position which provided for a $7.2 billion highway obligation ceiling. Speaking as chairman of the Budget Committee, I want to express my sincere appreciation to Senator BAYH and to the other Senate conferees for their successful efforts to assist the Congress in maintaining good fiscal discipline.
I would like to orally add my appreciation to the Senator from Indiana and the Senator from New Jersey for a point that may or may not have been important to them, but that they were able to succeed in insisting upon, and that is the Senate position which provided for a $7.2 billion highway obligation ceiling. I think that is a very solid contribution to good fiscal discipline, and I would like to express my personal appreciation.
Mr. BAYH. That is very thoughtful of the Senator from Maine. Of course, he knows this was the only matter of disagreement that was taken to the floor for a rollcall vote, and the Senate position was supported by the House. I appreciate the Senator's overall comments insofar as our activities here are concerned.
I yield to the Senator from New Jersey.