February 5, 1980
Page 1789
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I do not particularly enjoy fighting lost causes but it seems I have found myself fighting them in the last couple of weeks. I find myself in that situation again.
Mr. President, I must urge the Senate to reject this legislation for two reasons:
First, the conference report omits a very desirable provision regarding contributions from the airport and airway trust fund for expenses of the Federal Aviation Administration. Second, the fiscal 1980 budget is already oversubscribed, as I spelled out in detail to the Senate yesterday.
When S. 413 passed the Senate, and again when the Senate substituted the text of S. 413 as an amendment to H.R. 2440, this legislation contained a provision that was budgetarily very desirable — the bill provided for a $250 million increase in trust fund payments for FAA operations and maintenance.
That provision represented a significant step toward implementing the principle that user fees should finance all types of Federal expenditures for aviation, and it would have reduced the burden on Federal taxpayers to subsidize air travel.
I am sure that members of the Budget Committee were influenced by this desirable provision when they voted to report favorably the budget waiver. I felt that it represented a major improvement in the bill from a budgetary standpoint. I said as much in my statement of April 10, 1979, when the Senate adopted the budget waiver on this legislation, Senate Resolution 125.
Unfortunately, Mr. President, that desirable provision was omitted from this conference report.
When the Senate and the full Congress established the airport and airway trust fund, all types of Federal expenditures for aviation activities were eligible for financing from trust fund revenues.
The Senate partially reestablished that policy in 1976. I believe we should continue to expand the portion of FAA costs funded from trust fund revenues given the enormous pressures on general revenues for other functions of the budget, including the defense function, and including the personnel costs of the defense function which were the subject of the extensive Senate debate yesterday, and the Senate decision will result in substantially increased Federal expenditure.
Mr. President, the conference report authorizes an additional $72 million in fiscal year 1980 funding, $57 million of which is direct spending authority not subject to further congressional action. Furthermore, it permits the obligation of an additional $200 million in discretionary funds for airport development (ADAP) projects. The costs of this bill fall in function 400, transportation, where the functional ceilings of the second budget resolution have already been exceeded. Furthermore, this bill will put additional pressure on the overall spending ceilings of the second budget resolution.
Mr. President, the bill before us involves an increase in spending which can be controlled and should thus be rejected.
Mr. President, because the conference report omits the desirable provision increasing the trust fund contributions for FAA expenses, and because the fiscal year 1980 budget is already oversubscribed, I will vote against it and urge the Senate to reject it.