November 1, 1977
Page 36189
Mr BELLMON. Mr. President, I want to assure the Members of the Senate that the first supplemental appropriations bill for the 1978 fiscal year does not, of itself, threaten the recently approved budgetary ceilings of the second budget resolution. The bill provides $7.9 billion in budget authority and $1.9 billion in outlays. While the bill contains funding for some 10 functions of the Federal budget, 90 percent of both the budget authority and outlays provided will occur in only two functional categories. They are function 300, energy, environment and natural resources and function 450, community and regional development.
Within function 300 the supplemental funds EPA construction grants at $4.5 billion and $0.1 billion in budget authority and outlays respectively. Collectively, ERDA, EPA operating programs, and natural resource programs receive $300 million, and $100 million in budget authority and outlays respectively. Emergency fuel assistance under CSA is allocated $200 million in both budget authority and outlays. Finally, the strategic petroleum reserve within FEA receives budget authority of $700 million with presumed outlays of $100 million.
Within function 450, SBA disaster relief payments were funded at $1.4 billion in BA and $1.2 billion in outlays. It should be noted that even these higher levels of funding will probably prove inadequate and program needs could well run between $2 and $3 billion for the full fiscal year.
The first supplemental also includes the rescission of fiscal year 1977 funding for the B-1 bomber. The effect of that rescission is to reduce outlays by $200 million over the level which would have been reached in the absence of that action. Senator STENNIS should be commended for achieving this saving.
Finally, however, it must be pointed out that the funding assumed in this supplemental appropriations plus known later requirements are likely to result in levels of budget authority and outlays which exceed the ceilings of the budget resolution by more than a billion dollars. If we are to maintain the commitments made to those binding ceilings, we must be restrained in offering cost increasing amendments to this and to other bills yet to be considered. Not only must we show restraint, but we must also be very lucky with respect to the final levels of funding required for the SBA disaster relief program if the budget ceilings are to be respected.
I intend to vote in favor of this bill, but at the same time, I remain committed to the budget ceilings we have recently adopted.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the RECORD a statement by the distinguished chairman of the Committee on the Budget (Mr. MUSKIE).
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
STATEMENT BY SENATOR EDMUND S. MUSKIE
H.R. 9375, the bill under consideration today, is the first consolidated supplemental appropriations bill for fiscal year 1978. This bill provides $7.9 billion in budget authority and $1.9 billion in outlays for a variety of Federal activities.
I would like to thank Senator STENNIS for his leadership in gaining inclusion of the fiscal 1977 B-1 rescission in this supplemental. Rescission of the fiscal 1977 amount proposed by the President will save about $200 million in fiscal 1978 outlays in the national defense budget and help us maintain the second budget resolution ceiling for that functional category.
This supplemental bill includes $200 million for emergency fuel bill assistance, a program I championed last year. This initiative is an important part of a national energy program.
Finally, I would like to commend the Appropriations Committee for its action to include $4.5 billion in this bill for EPA construction grants. These funds are sorely needed to continue our national priority of achieving clean water.
Enactment of this bill as reported will still leave the Appropriations Committee below its allocations under the second budget resolution by $13.6 billion in budget authority and $5.7 billion in outlays. However, when all known later requirements are accounted for, the committee is likely to be over its allocations by $1 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively. This potential overrun is the direct consequence of the extraordinary requirement for SBA disaster loans for which $1.4 billion in budget authority and $1.2 billion in outlays has thus far been requested by the President and included in this bill. Since the Senate has already acted on this requirement in an amendment to the District of Columbia appropriation bill, I will not discuss it today.
However, I want to remind my colleagues that on the basis of our latest estimates for the budget as a whole, the second budget resolution spending ceilings may be exceeded by $1.2 billion in budget authority and $1.4 billion in outlays. I, therefore, strongly urge my colleagues to avoid worsening the situation by piling on amendments to H.R. 9375 and driving up the cost of the bill we are debating today.