June 19, 1979
Page 15443
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the international development assistance authorization bill, S. 588, includes a fiscal year 1980 authorization of $1,762 million.
This legislation, along with other authorization legislation in the international affairs category, needs to be addressed in the context of the first budget resolution targets recently adopted by the Congress.
The fiscal year 1980 first budget resolution targets provide for $12.6 billion in budget authority and $7.9 billion in outlays for the international affairs function.
The Committee on Foreign Relations has reported and the Senate has passed three other major fiscal 1980 authorization bills that relate to function 150, international affairs. These are the International Security Assistance Act, the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, and the Omnibus Multilateral Development Bank Act.
If fully funded, the four authorization bills reported by the Committee on Foreign Relations, including S. 588, could be accommodated by the fiscal year 1980 functional totals. This bill is fully consistent with the first budget resolution.
The authorization levels in this bill are $19 million less than last year's appropriations. This reflects the committee's success, under the leadership of Senator CHURCH, in authorizing a prudent level for the many essential programs in this bill while, at the same time, making careful reductions in low priority areas of existing programs.
Such careful oversight of existing programs is the only way we can bring the budget into balance. It is also the most responsible method of adjusting program requests, avoiding the meat-ax across-the-board cuts that hurt the most effective programs and the least effective programs equally.
In closing, Mr. President, I want to acknowledge the efforts made by the Committee on Foreign Relations to hold down the level of authorization in these bills. I am a member of that committee and I know they have worked very hard to meet the Budget Committee targets. I especially wish to commend the distinguished senior Senator from Idaho, Mr. CHURCH, for his able and conscientious efforts to report legislation that meets the targets in the budget resolution.