CONFEREES APPROVE BUDGET PROCEDURES REFORM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75B00380R000600080008-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: November 17, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 14, 2000
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: June 15, 1974
• Content Type: PERRPT

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and Interior and Insular Affairs Committees until July 19,
with instructions to consider an amendment authorizing a
permanent agency to deal with shortages which would have
a national resource and material information system and
mi hnrity to collect the information., 1
- IIe said it was a mis-
take to establish a commission to study the need for such an
agency when it was already "clear that we do...... The mo-
tion to recommit failed, 34-56. (Vote 241, p. 1588)
By voice votes, the Senate approved a modified amend-
ment offered by Robert Taft Jr. (R Ohio) authorizing the
commission to consider the impact of shortages on con-
/J, 7/J1
sumers,. and an amendment offered by Hubert H.
Humphrey (D Minn.) that would require the commission to
set up an advisory commission with an authorization of
$75,000 to consider shortages in light of national wth
and development.
House Outlook
The House Interior and Insular Affairs Subcommittee
on Mines and Mining held hearings in March and April on
shortages of minerals, but had not considered any legisla-
tion similar to the Senate bill. I
CONFEREES APPROVE BUDGET PROCEDURES REFORM
Conference Action-House and Senate conferees
June 12 filed a conference report (S Rept 93-294) on HR
7130, reforming congressional budget procedures.
Setting the framework for reasserting congressional
control over government spending, House and Senate con-
ferees reached agreement on legislation that would revise
and elaborate the procedures by which Congress considers
the federal budget.
If faithfully implemented when its provisions fully
take effect in 1976, the budget-reform bill would force
Congress into more measured and timely action on
budgetary legislation, tying its separate spending decisions
together with fiscal policy objectives in a congressionally
determined budget package.
Following a budget reform format prepared in 1973 by
a joint study committee, the bill would require Congress
before acting on appropriations and spending measures to
adopt a budget resolution setting target figures for total
appropriations, total spending and appropriate tax and
debt levels. The measure would create. new House and
Senate committees to analyze budget options and prepare
the budget resolutions.
While building on the existing committee structure in
considering authorization and appropriations bills, HR 7130
would establish a detailed timetable setting deadlines for
floor action on various spending measures. To fit the ex-
panded budget-making procedures into the yearly con-
gressional session schedule, the bill would shift the federal
government onto an Oct. 1-Sept. 30 fiscal year, giving
Congress an additional three months to wrap up its budget
review. Before the fiscal year began, Congress would have
to reconsider its budget targets and reconcile its spending
actions.
Correcting existing practices that foiled congressional'
control over how much the federal government spent, the
bill would provide procedures for putting limits on
backdoor spending programs and for forcing the President
to spend impounded funds.
Since the conference version would allow a waiver of
its procedural and deadline requirements at several stages,
how well the new budget process worked would depend, of
course, on how determined Congress was in disciplining its
spending decisions.
Congressional Budget Timetable
The conference agreement on HR 7130 would es-
tablish the following deadlines for consideration of
budget legislation by Congress:
Nov. 10
15 days after Con-
gress convenes
March 15
May 15
May 15
7 days after Labor
Day
Sept. 15
Current services budget submitted
President's budget submitted
Committees submit budget reports
Budget Committees
Congressional Budget Office sends
report to Budget Committees
Budget Committees report first budget
resolution to House and Senate
All authorization bills reported
Final action on first budget resolution
Final action on appropriations bills
Final action on second budget reso-
lution
Final action on budget reconciliation
measure
Fiscal year begins
form by both the House and Senate. (House action, 1973
Almanac p. 243; Senate action, Weekly Report p. 785, 679)
The product of intense staff negotiations both during
Senate consideration and in conference, the final version
tended to follow more detailed Senate provisions where the
two versions differed. In setting the timetable, for instance,
the conference agreement generally applied deadlines to the
expanded list of actions subjected to time limits in the
Senate bill.
In prescribing the content of congressional budget
resolutions, on the other hand, the conference agreement
followed the less specific House bill's provisions requiring
allocation of appropriation and spending totals among func-
tional budget categories. It dropped from the final bill
further appropriation and spending breakdowns required
by the Senate version between existing and proposed
programs, regular and permanent appropriations and con-
trollable and uncontrollable spending.
As under the Senate bill the budget resolution r
Conference Action
ed in the bill could recommend increases or decreases oin
f
d 1
e
era revenues and in the federal debt.
In general outline, the conference version established Following a less rigid Senate approach, the conferees
procedures that had been approved in basically similar dro e HH
Approved For Release 2000/08/27 : CIA-RDP75B0038~U 06a &d'6b~~`-o' allowing cleared appropriations
PACE 1590--June 15, 19 74 COPY GMt 1974 CONGRESSIONAL OVAR,ERIY INC.
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