LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS
FOR 1988

HEARINGS

BEFORE A

SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE
COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDREDTH CONGRESS

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR 1988

AND 1987 SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS REQUESTS

Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations

71-837 O

U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

WASHINGTON: 1987

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office
US. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402

COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS

JAMIE L. WHITTEN, Mississippi, Chairman

FREDERICK G. MOHRMAN, Clerk and Staff Director

(II)

LEGISLATIVE BRANCH APPROPRIATIONS FOR

FISCAL YEAR 1988

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 1987.

OPENING STATEMENT

Mr. FAZIO. We will now commence hearings on the fiscal year 1988 budget for the various Legislative Branch agencies under the jurisdiction of the Subcommittee on the Legislative Branch Appropriations.

Before we begin, I would also 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 the Ranking Minority Member, Sil Conte of Massachusetts, who is the Ranking Minority Member 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.

I would like to thank Mr. Lewis for once again serving as Ranking Member of this subcommittee. It has been a positive relationship that we have had, and I am pleased to see that you have the same team on your side.

The budget that we are going to consider totals $1,586,627,000. This does not include $373,825,000 in Senate items which will be considered in the other body. With the Senate included, the total budget for the Legislative Branch would be $1,960,452,000. Of the portion of this budget which will be considered by the subcommittee, $964,765,000 is for Congressional Operations only. We have not yet received a budget request from the Biomedical Ethics Board. The balance of the funds requested, which total $621,862,000, 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 will also consider during these hearings fiscal year 1987 supplemental requests of $88,961,000.

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 6.2 percent. The general government function, which includes executive direction and management in the executive branch, has grown at 6.7 percent per year on average. That's a 31 percent higher annual rate of growth than the legislative budget.

The fiscal 1988 budget does represent an increase. The Committee will undoubtedly make reductions when we mark the bill upjust 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.

Perhaps Mr. Lewis would like to comment before we take our first witness?

STATEMENT BY MR. LEWIS

Mr. LEWIS. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to take just a moment to express my appreciation to you, Vic, for the manner in which you and your staff have worked with us. It has been a positive and bipartisan kind of atmosphere. This is not an easy bill. There is not much thanks for the work you do here, and particularly of late, the difficulty that the Chairman of this committee can be faced with is not only very little credit, but darned little support. I want you to know that we are here to be supportive. Mandatory appropriations make up much of this bill. We receive from the House Administration Committee authorization that we are supposed to almost automatically fund. Nonetheless, in this atmosphere of cut, squeeze, and trim, we will look to the agencies to help us to get even a little tighter.

I might mention that one of the pleasures of serving on this committee is that this is a bicentennial year. Mrs. Boggs has played a very important leadership role in that connection. This committee will play some significant role as we celebrate not just the history and tradition, but the meaning of this institution to the country. So I look forward to our hearings and cooperating and working with you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. FAZIO. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. I know Mrs. Boggs and I and all the Members of the subcommittee appreciate your comments. This has been a very good bipartisan experience for all of us. I hope we can continue. It is for the good of the institution. I am always pleased to see that no one takes partisan advantage of this process. It is one of the more rewarding experiences I have had in Congress.

Mr. Myers, I know you have been sitting on Energy and Water for three-and-a-half hours. I know Mrs. Boggs was over there. We have already had a long day.

Mr. Alexander?

Mr. ALEXANDER. I would like to say that unlike much of the comment we hear about this committee, I do not consider it to be a penance for past sins. The work of this committee is very important. I, along with other Members, take seriously the proposals that will be submitted to it and I look forward to working with the Chairman and the other Members for another term.

Mr. FAZIO. Thank you.