July 24, 1979
Page 20301
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the Senate has before it H.R. 4392, which provides fiscal year 1980 appropriations for the Departments of State, Justice, Commerce, the judiciary and related agencies. I want to take a few minutes to comment on the relationship of this bill to the first budget resolution. Before I do, however, let me say that I support the bill. I congratulate Subcommittee Chairman HOLLINGS and the full Appropriations Committee for reporting this fiscally responsible legislation.
Mr. President, the bill as reported provides $8.3 billion in new budget authority. Outlays associated with the bill total $6.2 billion.
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 $9.8 billion in budget authority and $10.5 billion outlays to the Senate/Justice Subcommittee.
The funds provided by H.R. 4392 as reported, plus other action already completed, put the subcommittee $1.5 billion under its 302(b) budget authority allocation and $0.4 billion under its outlay allocation. But I would call your attention to the fact that possible later requirements known at this time could boost the subcommittee above its allocation by $0.1 billion in budget authority and $0.2 billion in outlays.
Mr. President, I shall submit a table showing the relationship of this bill and possible later requirements to the subcommittee allocation at the conclusion of my remarks.
Although the subcommittee is likely to be close to its allocation, I think it is important to remind the Senate of the point I made when the three previous fiscal 1980 appropriation bills were before us. Then I pointed out that it appeared that the full Appropriations Committee could exceed the amount allocated to it under the first budget resolution by over $5 billion in budget authority and $4 billion in outlays when all the regular appropriation bills and expected supplemental requirements are taken into account. Unfortunately, I now find it necessary to revise that statement. It now appears that the overage may be more than $6 billion in budget authority and $5 billion in outlays. This increase in the expected appropriations overage is attributable to Appropriation Subcommittee action on H.R. 4394, the HUD-independent agencies bill.
I do not want to belabor the point, but I feel I should explain again that these additional appropriations could increase the fiscal 1980 deficit by as much as $5 to $6 billion. In fact, the combination of these additional appropriations and the apparent economic slowdown threaten to drive the fiscal 1980 deficit higher than fiscal 1979.
Mr. President, as I have said before, I recognize that the failure of other committees to achieve savings in appropriated programs, uncontrollable increases in some programs, and new Presidential energy initiatives, are beyond the control of the Appropriations Committee. But I again urge the Senate to make appropriate reductions in future bills to avoid a significant increase over the first budget resolution targets.
In conclusion, Mr. President, I repeat that I intend to vote in favor of H.R. 4392 as reported. I urge my colleagues to do likewise.
The table follows:
[Table omitted]