Date: 1982-07-19
Speaker: ROBERT C. BYRD (democrat)
Chamber: S

Mr. President. the Senator from Kentucky sat down. He does not have the floor. But I am willing for him to have it. He is going to yield to me. anyhow. Mr. President. we are all in favor of a balanced budget. In 1980. I implored President Carter to send up to the Hill his top officialsthe Secretary of the Treasury. the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. the Economic Adviserand that we work together. with. the leadership in the House and the leadership in the Senate. to come up with a balanced budget. We had 8 days of meetings in the room just off the Chamber to my right. commonly referred to as the Lyndon B. Johnson Room and those 8 days of meetings included a Saturday and Sunday. and we hammered out a balanced budget. The first concurrent resolution was passed in 1980. in the month of June. and provided for a balanced budget. However. it is one thing to provide for a balanced budget in a resolution. but it is quite another thing to conclude the year with a balanced budget. The President and Congress. in that instance. felt that they shared the responsibility of developing a balanced budget. Mr. President. I think this is a realistic way to view the matter. If we are going to have a balanced budget. it is a matter in which the President and Congress share responsibility in bring ing it about. After all. the budget process begins months in advance of the submission of the budget to Congress by the President. The budget cycle begins perhaps 18 months in advance. with the various field offices throughout the United States looking over their programs. perhaps having hearings. conducting studies. and then submitting to the regional offices. and then to the agencies in Washington. their proposals for the budget for the year which is a year and a half down the road. Those agencies in Washington then go over the proposals that have come in to them from the regions. from the field operations throughout the United States. and those agencies here then revise. if they see fit. those proposals that have come in from the field offices. Then the agencies -go to the various departments of which they are a part. and they present their requests. The departments have an opportunity to go over the proposals and to revise them. Then the departments go to the Office of Management and Budget and make their pitches there. The Office of Management and Budget goes over the matter. and there may be additional hearings. and it may go back and forth. time and time again. between the departments and the Office of Management and Budget. and it is submitted to the President. Then it may be kicked back to the Office of Management and Budget. and then parts of it may be kicked back to this department or to that department. and those departments may have an opportunity to be heard in appealing to the President. So that whole cycle of the budget process begins 18 months in advance of the final year in question. It all begins in the executive branch. It is perfectly obvious that the President has a vital part. working through his executive branch. working through his departments. working through his Cabinet officers and. below them. the subCabinet officials and. below them. the regional officials and. below them. the field operations. the various local operations of the agencies involved. This is a long. complicated. timecon suming. laborintensive process. It does not begin the day before the budget is submitted to Congress by the President. It is months in the making. All of this is to say that the President. through his departments. through his agencies. through the executive branch. has a vital part in the formulation of and the submission of the budget to Congress. The budget is submitted to Congress by the President. This President. during his campaign. said that he had an economic plan by which the. budget would be balanced by fiscal year 1983. if not by 1982. We were then told that there would be a $45 billion deficit for 1982. $23 billion for 1983. and a balanced budget for 1984a zero deficit. Then. the President backed away. when .he saw that the budget could not be balanced in fiscal year 1984.