LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS
FOR 1989

HEARINGS

BEFORE A

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDREDTH CONGRESS

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

JAMIE L. WHITTEN, Mississippi, Chairman

FREDERICK G. MOHRMAN, Clerk and Staff Director

(II)

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR

FISCAL YEAR 1989

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9, 1988.

Mr. FAZIO. We will now commence hearings on the fiscal year 1989 budget for the various legislative branch agencies under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on Legislative Branch Appropriations.

Before we begin, I would like to identify the other Members of the Subcommittee: Dave Obey of Wisconsin, Bill Alexander of Arkansas, Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania, Bob Traxler of Michigan, Lindy Boggs of Louisiana, Jerry Lewis of California, who is our ranking minority, Sil Conte of Massachusetts, who is the ranking minority on the full committee, John Myers of Indiana, and John Porter of Illinois.

And we have the chairman of the Committee on Appropriations, Jamie Whitten of Mississippi, who is also a member of the subcommittee.

The budget that we are going to consider totals $1,546,154,000. This does not include $413,198,000 in Senate items which will be considered in the other body. With the Senate included, the total budget for the legislative branch would be $1,959,352,000. Of the portion of this budget which will be considered by the subcommittee, $901,292,000 is for congressional operations only. We have not received a budget request from the Biomedical Ethics Board or the Congressional Award Board. Since the authorization for Biomedical Ethics expires this year and since the appropriation we made for the Congressional Award Board was a one-time emergency, we are not expecting those requests.

The balance of the funds requested, which total $644,882,000, support statutory and administrative activities of the legislative branch which are performed for the executive branch and for the public-at-large. These activities include such agencies as the Library of Congress, Copyright Royalty Tribunal, Botanic Garden, Government Printing Office, and the General Accounting Office. The subcommittee has no pending FY 1988 supplemental requests.

COMPARISON OF BUDGET GROWTH BETWEEN LEGISLATIVE AND

EXECUTIVE BRANCHES

I want to point out the history of restraint we have imposed on the legislative budget in recent years. Our budget has actually declined in real terms. And, we have kept our budget well below the growth in the executive budget.

Since fiscal 1982, my first year as chairman of this subcommittee, the annual compound rate of growth in the legislative appropriation has been 5.1 percent. The comparable growth rate in the overall Federal funds budget during this same period has been 6.4 percent. The general government function, which includes executive direction and management in the executive branch as well as legislative activities, has grown at 6.2 percent per year on average. That's a 22 percent higher annual rate of growth than the legislative budget.

I owe most of these calculations to my friend, Mr. Ed Lombard, the subcommittee clerk, who is responsible for identifying many of these economies and who is also adept at presenting the figures.

The fiscal 1989 budget request does represent an increase well beyond the 2 percent or so, that was agreed to in the "economic summit" agreement. The Committee will undoubtedly make reductions when we mark the bill up-just as we do almost every year. But, we should point out that the legislative budget is much behind the growth in the other areas of the Federal budget.

It is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain this type of restraint on the legislative budget year after year. After all, we are one-third of the Federal Government under the Constitution. We must protect our ability to legislate and to oversee the vast activities and expenditures of the executive budget.

REPORT TO THE BUDGET COMMITTEE

At this point in the record, we will place the subcommittee's submission to the full Committee of the Views and Estimates report. Mr. Lewis and I approved this report which is the more or less standard analysis we have done in recent years.

[The report follows:]

MARCH 8 REPORT TO BUDGET COMMITTEE

SUBMISSION TO FULL COMMITTEE BY THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH SUBCOMMITTEE

The fiscal year 1989 appropriation request and other items under the Legislative Branch Subcommittee's jurisdiction totals $2,021,278,000 in budget authority and $1,990,055,000 in projected outlays including the Senate items that will be left for consideration by the other body. The outlays are estimates only and will result from fiscal year 1989 appropriations as well as appropriations enacted in prior years which will be expended in 1989.

Undoubtedly, reductions will be made in these budget requests as the Committee prepares to report a FY 1989 appropriations bill. The Subcommittee believes, however, that the overall targets should be based on the budget figures for the time being. Therefore, the ceilings on budget authority and outlays for items within the jurisdiction of the Legislative Subcommittee for Budget Act purposes should be $2,021,278,000 and $1,990,055,000, respectively.

BUDGET FUNCTIONS

COMMERCE AND HOUSING CREDIT (FUNCTION 370)

This function deals with commercial and housing credit activities of the federal government. The Copyright Office and Copyright Royalty Tribunal are the two items in the bill that fall within this function. There are no known needs beyond the $12,266,000 requested in the budget for budget authority and the $12,180,000 in estimated outlays.

EDUCATION, TRAINING, EMPLOYMENT, AND SOCIAL SERVICES (FUNCTION 500)

All the Library of Congress activities except for the Copyright Office and Congressional Research Service are included in this function. At this time, the FY 1989 request of $200,456,000 in budget authority and the estimated $196,937,000 in outlays seem sufficient.

GENERAL GOVERNMENT (FUNCTION 800)

The general housekeeping programs of the Federal government, including legislative and legislative-support activities, are included in this function. Most of the items within the Subcommittee's jurisdiction are contained in the General Government function.

Included are the budgets for the House and Senate, other joint items, the Congressional Research Service, the Speaker's Civic Achievement Awards Program, Office of Technology Assessment, Congressional Budget Office, the Biomedical Ethics Board, the Congressional Award Board, the General Accounting Office, Government Printing Office, and the Architect of the Capitol. The appropriation request for fiscal year 1989 budget authority is $1,808,556,000; outlays are estimated at $1,780,938,000. Budget requests for the Biomedical Ethics Board and the Congressional Award Board have not been received.