August 10, 1978
Page 25342
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the Senate has before it H.R. 13125, the Agriculture and Related Agencies Appropriation bill for fiscal year 1979.
The bill as amended provides $23.4 billion in new budget authority. Outlays associated with the bill total $13.7 billion, including $2.0 billion in outlays from budget authority provided in prior years.
Under section 302(b) of the Budget Act, the Appropriations Committee divides among its subcommittees the total budget authority and outlays allocated to the committee under the first budget resolution. The Appropriations Committee has allocated $24.9 billion in budget authority and $14.6 billion in outlays to the Agriculture Subcommittee.
The funds provided by H.R. 13125 as reported plus permanent appropriations under the jurisdiction of this subcommittee put the subcommittee $0.1 billion over its 302(b) budget authority allocation and $0.6 billion under its outlay allocation. Possible later requirements known at this time could increase the budget authority overage to $0.6 billion while outlays would remain $0.3 billion below the allocation.
Mr. President, I ask that a table showing the relationship of this bill and possible later requirements to the subcommittee allocation be printed in the RECORD at this point.
The table follows:
[Table omitted]
Mr. MUSKIE. Since there is a potential budget overage, I would point out that if it materializes, other subcommittees will need to stay below their allocations if the Appropriations Committee is to stay within its total allocation.
H.R. 13125 as reported is consistent with the functional and aggregate targets in the first budget resolution, and I support it. I commend the distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Senator EAGLETON, for his dedicated efforts in support of the budget process.
I note that the committee has included in this bill $75 million requested by the President, as part of his water policy, for full funding for water projects of the Soil Conservation Service. This full funding is a change from current practice, and was not anticipated at the time of the first budget resolution, which was prior to the President's policy announcement. I wish to point out that if this change is enacted by the Congress, the budget process is sufficiently flexible to accommodate this change in the second budget resolution, which the Senate Budget Committee will begin marking up shortly. Moreover, as a member of both the Budget and Environment and Public Works Committees, I intend to review this policy carefully in water projects throughout the budget, and hope to make this review a part of the congressional consideration of the fiscal year 1980 budget.