August 9, 1978
Page 25066
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the Senate has before it H.R. 12932, the Interior and related agencies appropriation bill for fiscal year 1979.
As reported, the bill provides $11.5 billion in new budget authority. Outlays associated with the bill total $10.6 billion, including $5.1 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 $13.3 billion in budget authority and $11.6 billion in outlays to the Interior Subcommittee.
The funds provided by the bill are under the subcommittee's section 302(b) allocation, for both budget authority and outlays. Funding of possible later requirements known at this time would add to the amounts appropriated in this bill but the total also would be under the allocation.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that a table comparing the subcommittee's 302(b) allocation to the funding in this bill be printed in the RECORD at the conclusion of my statement.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
(See exhibit 1.)
Mr. MUSKIE. As reported, the bill is within the targets of the first budget resolution.
This is due in large part to the efforts of the chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, our distinguished majority leader. Indeed, a generous portion of the credit for the new congressional budget process taking hold in the Senate belongs to the distinguished Senator from West Virginia (Mr. ROBERT C. BYRD).
As a member of the Senate Rules Committee, Senator BYRD played an instrumental role in the formulation of the bill that became the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act of 1974. Better than most people, he understands the provisions of this complex and important measure. Both as majority whip and majority leader, the distinguished Senator has lent his considerate support to the budget process and, under his leadership, the Democratic Policy Committee has been most cooperative in securing compliance with the demanding provisions of the Budget Act.
This act provides us with a tool to affect the national economy. It gives us a way to deal with inflation: by holding down the expenditure of Federal dollars. But it takes discipline to do that, and our majority leader has shown once again with this bill that he has the sense of purpose, courage, and toughness to achieve this discipline. The distinguished junior Senator from West Virginia knows what inflation is doing to the people of this country. He knows that men and women, in West Virginia and every other State of the Union, are demanding a new sense of fiscal responsibility from the Congress and he is acting in accord with their wishes and in the best interests of this country.
I commend him for this bill, for his support of the budget process, and for the leadership he is providing to us all.