May 16, 1979
Page 11547
BUDGET ACT WAIVER
Mr. ROBERT C. BYRD. Mr. President, on behalf of Mr. Muskie, I send to the desk a resolution which is a Budget Act waiver for the Small Business Administration authorization. I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered. The resolution will be stated.
The legislative clerk read as follows:
A resolution (S. Res. 156) waiving section 402(a) of the Congressional Budget Act with respect to the consideration of S. 918.
The Senate proceeded to consider the resolution.
Mr. ROBERT C. BYRD. Mr. President, I see the chairman of the Budget Committee is here. I did not realize he was on the floor. I did this in his behalf. Perhaps the Senator would like to address himself to it.
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I appreciate the action on the part of the distinguished majority leader. The Budget Committee has considered the pending legislation, which deals, among other things, with legislation applicable to disaster relief programs of the Federal Government and the terms thereof. The waiver which is at the desk is required under section 402 (a) of the Budget Act, because the legislation was introduced and is before us subsequent to May 15 of last year, which, under the Budget Act, is the deadline for introduction of authorizing legislation with budget impact on the current fiscal year 1979.
Mr. President, the Budget Committee recommended approval of Senate Resolution 156 for several reasons: First, the potential budget overage was minor and perhaps could be offset by spending reductions in other programs; second, the major cause of budget problems in the current SBA disaster loan program, agricultural disaster lending duplicating that provided by FmHA, would be essentially eliminated by the programmatic reforms in S. 918; third, while the bill did reintroduce subsidized interest rates, it did so at a much shallower subsidy level than prevailed in fiscal year 1978 and than would have been continued under the legislation vetoed by the President last fall; and fourth, S. 918 requires implementation by SBA of a "credit elsewhere test," which together with the lower interest subsidy, should eliminate much of the program abuse which SBC has complained of in the past.
For those reasons, the Budget Committee voted to recommend approval of the waiver resolution.
I do not think further discussion on this point is essential. I urge the approval of the waiver resolution.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The question is on agreeing to the waiver resolution.
The resolution was agreed to as follows :
Resolved, That pursuant to section 402(c) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the provisions of section 402(a) of such Act are waived with respect to the consideration of S. 918, a bill to amend the Small Business Act and the Small Business Investment Act of 1958.
Such waiver is necessary to permit the consideration of legislation authorizing the enactment of new budget authority for fiscal year 1979 for the Small Business Administration disaster assistance program.
Authorizing legislation for this purpose was reported by the Small Business Committee prior to May 15, 1979 (H.R. 11445) and was ultimately approved by the Congress during the second session of the ninety-fifth Congress. However, the President withheld his signature from the bill after the sine die adjournment of the Congress. The effect of this disapproval was to cause certain benefits provided for in existing law to expire.
Major disasters have occurred, and may occur in the balance of this fiscal year, which could lead to increased loan activity, requiring new appropriations. This legislation is necessary to provide the authority for the enactment of those appropriations.
Mr. ROBERT C. BYRD. Mr. President,I move to reconsider the vote by which the resolution was agreed to.
Mr. MUSKIE. I move to lay that motion on the table.
The motion to lay on the table was agreed to.
Mr. ROBERT C. BYRD. Mr. President,I thank the Senator from Maine (Mr. MUSKIE) for the expeditious handling of this resolution, which makes it possible now for the Senate to proceed to the pending business. I personally want to thank him for his fine cooperation in this instance, as in all instances.