May 5, 1977
Page 13804
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, at this time I would like to comment on the relationship of the pending bill, S. 855, the authorization measure for the National Science Foundation, with the first budget resolution for fiscal year 1978 as passed yesterday by the Senate.
I realize that the Senate has not yet adopted the conference report on the budget resolution. I know, however, that Senator KENNEDY and other members interested in this bill will want to know how the measure stands in relation to the budget resolution as passed.
S. 855 authorizes $898 million in budget authority for fiscal year 1978, with outlays estimated to be $835 million. These amounts are almost identical to the amounts noted in the March 15 report to the Budget Committee by the Committee on Human Resources.
As I have stated before, the Budget Committee is not a line item committee. We do not set budget targets for specific programs or for particular agencies. That is the task of the authorizing and appropriations committees.
What we do set is a target for the functional categories of the budget, and, with the assistance of the Congressional Budget Office, we try to keep the Senate informed as to how legislation is affecting and would affect the functional targets of the budget resolution.
Funding for the National Science Foundation falls within function 250; general science, space, and technology. For this function, the Budget Resolution as reported sets targets of $4.9 billion in budget authority and $4.7 billion in outlays.
While the outlay target for this function is slightly below the total outlays recommended to the Budget Committee by the authorizing committees in their March 15 reports, I believe that it is reasonable to expect that actual outlays in function 250 in fiscal year 1978 will be consistent with the budget targets.
The Committee on Appropriations, in its March 15 report to the Budget Committee, indicated that function 250 spending in fiscal year 1978 should be $4.9 billion in budget authority and $4.7 billion in outlays, the same amounts as contained in the Budget Resolution. Moreover, the Committee on Appropriations has in the past funded the programs in this function at slightly below the amounts authorized. With careful review of the appropriations for all programs in this function, I believe the Senate can hold to the function 250 targets in the First Budget Resolution. Enactment of S. 855 will not hinder us in attempting to achieve that objective.
Neither will another bill, funding for which comprises a major component of function 250. This is the NASA authorization bill which is expected to be reported this week. This bill is likely to authorize funds at a level consistent with the functional targets of the budget resolution.
In the case of the third component of this function, the Energy Research and Development Administration's programs of basic research, the authorizing legislation is not far enough along to know what amounts may be set for the function 250 programs. I think it is worth noting that these programs in this function are not in policy areas that are likely to increase greatly as a result of the energy crisis.
So I support S. 855, and I look forward to supporting appropriations in function 250 that will comply with the targets of the budget resolution.