[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 146 (Wednesday, October 14, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S12536-S12537]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           THE BUDGET PROCESS

  Mr. SPECTER. Mr. President, I have sought recognition to comment 
about the budget process and the status of events now pending between 
the Congress and the Administration.
  We have come to a stage on appropriations where so many decisions are 
left, in the final analysis, to negotiations which involve only four 
Members of Congress and now the Chief of Staff of the President's 
administration, which I believe is far removed from the regular order 
of the United States Congress and the regular order as envisioned by 
the Constitution where the Congress legislates, presents bills to the 
President, and the President either signs or vetoes those bills.
  We have, as we all know, 100 Members of the Senate and 435 Members of 
the House of Representatives. And it is my view that, if 
unconstitutional, it is certainly an unwise de facto delegation of 
power to four Members of Congress: The Majority and Minority Leaders of 
the Senate, the Speaker, and the Minority Leader of the House of 
Representatives.
  My bill is illustrative. I chair the appropriations subcommittee 
which has jurisdiction of three major Departments: The Department of 
Education, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the 
Department of Labor. And my staff and I worked during the month of 
August, a recess month, so that when we came back into session on 
August 31 we would be prepared, as we were on September 1, to have the 
subcommittee act. The full committee then acted on September 3 in an 
effort to have this complex and important bill considered early on by 
the Senate.
  The bill never came to the Senate floor because of other pressing 
business and candidly, because the bill was so controversial that it 
would likely be tied up in matters which might not be resolved. 
However, I believe that had these issues been debated on the Senate 
floor, I think that they would have had chance, a realistic chance. 
Ultimately, with enough time and effort, we could have prevailed. 
Similarly, in the House of Representatives there was never floor 
consideration to the legislation covering these three important 
departments.
  So the subcommittee chairman and the ranking members met and tried to 
work out many of the points of contention. The matters have never been 
considered on the floor of the Senate where under our procedures 
Senators have the right to offer amendments, the right to modify 
figures in the regular legislative consideration.
  We are going to have to take a hard look at our procedures when we 
reconvene next January so that we go back to the regular order and to 
the process under which this body, the Senate, considers the 
legislation we have handled on the floor and then in the conference 
report and then present it to the President for his signature or for 
his veto, as he exercises his Presidential judgment.
  We had a conference last Friday with representatives from the Office 
of Management and Budget and the chairmen of the Appropriations 
Committees from both Houses, as well as the chairmen of the 
subcommittees and ranking members. At that time we were considering an 
objection which the President had raised to the appropriations bill 
covering education. The President had just had a rose garden news 
conference and was very, very critical of Congress for failing to meet 
his demands, his requests, his priorities on education.
  I was asked to participate in a responsive news conference which, 
unlike the President's power of the bully pulpit, received virtually no 
attention. The facts are these: The President has requested for 
education $31,185,302,000; on Friday the House-Senate Conference 
Committee had come to a figure of $31,832,358,000. Rounding off the 
numbers, the President was at $31.2 billion and the House-Senate 
conference was at $31.8 billion. We were $600 million over the 
President's figure. It led me at that news conference to comment that 
the President either did not know what the figures were or was 
negotiating not in good faith in representing that the Congress had not 
met his requests for an education funding figure.
  A further controversy developed, and I believe is still pending, 
although those negotiations are ongoing. And minute by minute we do not 
know whether agreements are made or not until we hear their final 
report. The President asked for $1.1 billion for classroom size. The 
President proposed paying for that item with the proceeds from the 
tobacco settlement, except there never was a tobacco settlement and we 
never had those proceeds to work with.
  My subcommittee had anticipated that problem and had, in the report 
which we filed, provided for reduction in classroom size to meet what 
the President considered a priority. We agreed with him that it was a 
priority. We allocated some $300 million for that effort. According to 
the information presented in our conference, the maximum expenditure 
for the next fiscal year would have been $50 million. So we had 
adequately taken care of the President's priority and we had more than 
enough funding to proceed for the first year.
  It was our concern that the congressional authorizing committees had 
not taken up the item, which should be done in the context where we saw 
there was adequate funding. Had we had the tobacco proceeds, I think a 
good bit more attention would have been paid to this. When the funding 
did not come through, the subcommittee made its best efforts. I believe 
the facts are illustrated on these items, which were the bones of 
contention. The subcommittee had provided more funding for education 
than the President had requested, and it made an appropriate allocation 
for classroom reduction size. Congress had done its job on education.
  It is obvious that when the President speaks from that bully pulpit 
he may even get more attention than when a Senator addresses the same 
subject on the Senate floor, seen by very few people on C-SPAN2. But at 
least we do what we can to establish the record for the propriety of 
our congressional action.
  The business of having 535 elected Members of the Congress delegate 
authority to four individual Members, short-circuiting our process, is 
not in the national interest.
  One of the items which has been under consideration in the 
subcommittee has been a complex question of organ transplants. The 
subcommittee has adopted the recommendation of the administration, put 
forward by Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, to 
establish regulations issued by her Department. We held a hearing on 
the subject and tried to

[[Page S12537]]

come to grips with that issue. A differing point of view was put forth 
by the House of Representatives.
  I concede that while the House advocates had parochial interests of 
their State, I, too, had an interest in Pennsylvania on this issue. 
Looking at the broader national aspects, it really is a matter to be 
decided by the medical experts. I think that was provided for in the 
regulations proposed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services. The 
Secretary had no parochial interest and was speaking for the national 
interest. If the Secretary was wrong, that is a matter which ought to 
be decided by the authorizing committee. It ought not to be left to the 
appropriators.
  That is only illustrative of many, many riders we have where the 
appropriators are called upon to decide very, very complex questions 
which ought to be resolved after hearings, analysis, floor debate, and 
a decision on what is public policy. They really are not issues to be 
decided by how much money ought to be allocated to a specific line, 
which is the function of appropriations.
  It is my hope that these procedures will be corrected when the 
Congress reconvenes next January, to find a way to return to regular 
order and to have these issues considered by the full Senate, 
considered in a Conference Committee, and presented to the President.
  When we had our conference last Friday, I raised the question head on 
with members of the Office of Management and Budget where this 
education item was a matter for veto. He had some difference of opinion 
of some $330 million, which is not insignificant, but is not enormous 
on a $32 billion budget. The representative of the administration 
couldn't answer the question. If we had passed a bill and submitted it 
to the President, I think he would not have vetoed. My instinct is if 
we passed a bill and submitted it to the President, the funding figure 
which he wished for, classroom size reduction, which has now been 
conceded by the congressional negotiators, but it left open the issue 
of whether it would be decided by the States and local government or 
decided by the Federal Government, with the President pressing to have 
a mandate from the Federal Government operated out of Washington 
instead of leaving it to local government.
  Here again, I think the President would not have exercised his veto, 
or at least had we followed regular order and the constitutional 
procedure without having the President in the negotiations on the 
appropriations bill--where he ought not to be, his representative ought 
not to be--we would have had a determination as to whether it rose to 
the magnitude of a Presidential veto.
  Our institutions have been well served, as we know, when we follow 
constitutional procedures, when you follow regular order on what has 
been established. I do believe that these shortcuts are not in the 
public interest and we ought to return to the tried and tested ways of 
the appropriations process.
  I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Record the chart I 
referred to earlier.
  There being no objection, the chart was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                                                    LABOR, HEALTH HUMAN SERVICES AND EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS
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                                                                                                         House committee  Senate committee      Tentative         Tentative
                                                                     1998 comparable   Budget request         bill              bill        agreement--House  agreement--Senate   Open issues UA
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Title II--Department of HHS, current year (federal)...............      162,167,174       177,149,724       176,289,059       176,178,717       178,665,109        178,695,109            30,000
    Prior year advances...........................................       31,036,993        31,718,189        31,718,189        31,718,189        31,718,189         31,718,189   ...............
    Trust funds, current year.....................................        1,798,072         1,951,665         1,951,665         1,694,715         1,955,665          1,955,665   ...............
                                                                   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
      Total.......................................................      195,002,239       210,819,578       209,958,913       209,591,621       212,338,963        212,368,963            30,000
                                                                   =============================================================================================================================
    Mandatory, current year.......................................      132,981,566       145,960,968       146,055,968       146,040,968       146,230,968        146,230,968   ...............
        Prior year advances.......................................       29,099,993        29,618,189        29,618,189        29,618,189        29,618,189         29,618,189   ...............
                                                                   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Subtotal: Mandatory.....................................      162,081,559       175,579,157       175,674,157       175,659,157       175,849,157        175,849,157   ...............
                                                                   =============================================================================================================================
    Discretionary.................................................       29,185,608        31,188,756        30,233,091        30,137,749        32,434,141         32,464,141            30,000
        Prior year advances.......................................        1,937,000         2,100,000         2,100,000         2,100,000         2,100,000          2,100,000   ...............
        Trust funds, current year.................................        1,798,072         1,951,665         1,951,665         1,694,715         1,955,665          1,955,665   ...............
        Projected HCFA user fee collections.......................  ................         (264,500)  ................  ................  ................  .................  ...............
        Child Care Welfare Reform rescission......................           (3,000)  ................  ................  ................  ................  .................  ...............
        Viagra Limitation.........................................  ................  ................          (40,000)  ................          (40,000)  .................           40,000
        Adjustment for legislative cap on Title XX SSBGs..........          (81,000)         (471,000)          (81,000)         (471,000)          (81,000)           (81,000)  ...............
                                                                   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Subtotal: Discretionary.................................       32,836,680        34,504,921        34,163,756        33,461,464        36,368,806         36,438,806            70,000
                                                                   =============================================================================================================================
          Total: 302(b) scorekeeping..............................      194,918,239       210,084,078       309,837,913       209,120,621       212,217,963        212,287,963            70,000
                                                                   =============================================================================================================================
Title III--Department of Education current year (federal funds)...       30,701,330        32,142,182        31,481,671        31,867,651        32,250,768         32,797,056           546,288
    Mandatory, current year.......................................        2,555,086         2,615,266         2,616,640         2,615,266         2,622,584          2,622,584   ...............
                                                                   =============================================================================================================================
    Discretionary, current year (federal funds)...................       28,146,244        29,526,916        28,865,031        29,252,385        29,628,184         30,174,472           546,288
        Prior year advances.......................................        1,298,386         1,658,386         1,658,386         1,658,386         1,658,386          1,658,386   ...............
                                                                   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Subtotal, Discretionary.................................       29,444,630        31,185,302        30,523,417        30,910,771        31,286,570         31,832,858           546,288
                                                                   -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Total, 302(b) scorekeeping..............................       31,999,716        33,800,568        33,140,057        33,526,037        33,909,154         34,455,442           546,288
                                                                   =============================================================================================================================
Title IV--Related Agencies (federal funds, current year)..........       17,738,380        23,195,669        23,058,541        23,207,418        23,173,046         23,182,836             9,790
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