[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 160 (Thursday, November 13, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12651-S12652]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  CONFERENCE REPORT ACCOMPANYING H.R. 2107, THE INTERIOR AND RELATED 
                   AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS BILL, 1998

 Mr. DOMENICI. Mr. President, I rise to address the conference 
report accompanying H.R. 2107, the fiscal year 1998 Interior and 
Related Agencies appropriations bill.
  The conference report was adopted by the Senate on October 28. At the 
time the bill was called up, the Budget Committee had not received 
CBO's scoring of the final bill. This was due to the significant 
changes to the bill made by the conferees. I have received CBO's 
information and now address the budgetary scoring of the bill.
  Mr. President, the conference agreement provides $13.8 billion in new 
budget authority and $9.1 billion in new outlays to fund the programs 
of the Department of Interior, the Forest Service of the Department of 
Agriculture, the Energy Conservation and Fossil Energy Research and 
Development Programs of the Department of Energy, the Indian Health 
Service, and arts-related agencies.
  When outlays from prior-year budget authority and other completed 
actions are taken into account, the bill provides a total of $13.9 
billion in budget authority and $13.8 billion in outlays for these 
programs for fiscal year 1998.
  Mr. President, final action on the conference agreement necessitated 
a reallocation of funding authority for this bill. I regret that this 
reallocation was necessary because it was avoidable.
  Section 205 of the fiscal year 1998 budget resolution provided for 
the allocation of $700 million in budget authority for Federal land 
acquisition and to finalize priority land exchanges upon the reporting 
of a bill that included such funding.

  The distinguished chairman of the Senate Interior Subcommittee 
included these funds in title V of the bill as originally reported. As 
Chairman of the Budget Committee, I allocated these funds to the 
Appropriations Committee, which in turn provided them to the Interior 
Subcommittee.
  If the conferees had adopted the Senate language, I would not have 
been in the position of withdrawing this funding allocation. However, 
the conferees modified the Senate language to provide only $699 million 
for land acquisition, and to expand the use of these funds for 
additional purposes: Critical maintenance activities are added as an 
allowable activity under this title V funding; $10 million is provided 
for a payment to Humboldt County, CA, as part of the headwaters land 
acquisition; and $12 million is provided for the repair and maintenance 
of the Beartooth Highway as part of the Crown Butte/New World Mine Land 
acquisition.
  I was a conferee on the bill. The Senate Budget Committee provided 
clarifying language to the conferees on the Interior appropriations 
bill during their meeting on September 30. This language simply 
restated that moneys provided in title V, when combined with moneys 
provided by other titles of the bill for Federal land acquisition, 
shall provide at least $700 million for Federal land acquisition and to 
finalize priority land exchanges.
  This language, which I urged be included throughout the 2-week period 
when final language was drafted, would have ensured that the section 
205 allocation remained in place for this bill.
  However, the Chairman decided not to incorporate the Senate language, 
and in fact, included language which attempts to trigger the additional 
$700 million by amending the budget resolution. The language in the 
conference report is directed scorekeeping, which causes a violation 
under section 306 of the Budget Act because it affects matters within 
the jurisdiction of the Budge Committee that were not reported by the 
Budget Committee.
  Mr. President, I object to the inclusion of this directed 
scorekeeping language in this bill, or any other bill. If the Senate 
took language amending the budget resolution into account for 
determining budgetary levels, the

[[Page S12652]]

budget resolution levels and our efforts to enforce a balanced budget 
plan would become meaningless.
  Instead of making the choices necessary to live within the budget 
resolution levels, committees could simply rely on a precedent to 
assert, or ``Deem,'' that they had complied with the budgetary limits, 
even though they hadn't.
  Such action would undermine the budget discipline of the Senate.
  Since the directed scorekeeping language will not become effective 
until the bill is signed into law, and the conferees did not clarify 
that $700 million is included in the bill for land acquisition and 
priority land exchanges, I had no choice but to withdraw the additional 
allocation of funding provided in section 205 of the budget resolution 
for land acquisition and exchanges.
  Mr. President, I ask that a table displaying the Budget Committee's 
scoring of the conference agreement accompanying the Interior and 
Related Agencies appropriations bill for fiscal year 1998 be placed in 
the Record at this point.
  The Senate Appropriations Committee has filed a revised 302(b) 
allocation to reduce the Interior Subcommittee by the amounts 
withdrawn.
  The final bill is therefore $698 million in budget authority and $235 
million in outlays above the subcommittee's revised 302(b) allocation 
as filed by the Appropriations Committee.
  The table follows:

                H.R. 2107, INTERIOR APPROPRIATIONS, 1998--SPENDING COMPARISONS--CONFERENCE REPORT
                                   [Fiscal year 1998, in millions of dollars]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                                                Defense  Nondefense   Crime   Mandatory   Total
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conference report:
  Budget authority............................................  .......     13,798   .......        55    13,853
  Outlays.....................................................  .......     13,707   .......        50    13,757
Senate 302(b) allocation:
  Budget authority............................................  .......     13,100   .......        55    13,155
  Outlays.....................................................  .......     13,472   .......        50    13,522
President's request:
  Budget authority............................................  .......     13,747   .......        55    13,802
  Outlays.....................................................  .......     13,771   .......        50    13,821
House-passed bill:
  Budget authority............................................  .......     12,980   .......        55    13,035
  Outlays.....................................................  .......     13,382   .......        50    13,432
Senate-passed bill:
  Budget authority............................................  .......     13,699   .......        55    13,754
  Outlays.....................................................  .......     13,687   .......        50    13,737
 
CONFERENCE REPORT COMPARED TO:
Senate 302(b) allocation:
  Budget authority............................................  .......        698   .......  .........      698
  Outlays.....................................................  .......        235   .......  .........      235
President's request:
  Budget authority............................................  .......         51   .......  .........       51
  Outlays.....................................................  .......        -64   .......  .........      -64
House-passed bill:
  Budget authority............................................  .......        818   .......  .........      818
  Outlays.....................................................  .......        325   .......  .........      325
Senate-passed bill:
  Budget authority............................................  .......         99   .......  .........       99
  Outlays.....................................................  .......         20   .......  .........       20
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Details may not add to totals due to rounding. Totals adjusted for consistency with current scorekeeping
  conventions.

  

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