Congress Mostly Passes

It postpones the hard decisions on spending

The Government, said Jimmy Carter, would "come to a screeching halt, and all [federal] salaries stop." Welfare payments would end, and public works projects would be suspended. Some 37.65 million Social Security checks were in the mail, but federal officials suggested that banks might not cash them.

Despite such dire--and wildly overstated--warnings, a recalcitrant Congress last week still postponed the hard decisions on budgets, taxes and deficits until after the elections. Congress did manage, before it adjourned, to pass a "continuing resolution" that will allow the Government to keep operating until Dec. 15, and remove all doubt that those Social Security checks will be cashed. But Congress will have to come back on Nov. 12, for its first postelection session in a presidential-election year since 1948, to have another go at deciding how much the Government can really spend and how big a deficit it can run during the fiscal year that began Oct. 1. Chances are strong that the lame-duck session will not accomplish much. Not until some time after a new Congress is sworn in on Jan. 3, and President Carter or President Reagan is inaugurated on Jan. 20, will some Government departments and agencies know what they can legally spend during the fiscal year that began last week.

The absurd situation arose because Congress, under its own laws, must pass by Sept. 15 a resolution detailing how much the Government can count on taking in through taxes, how much it can spend, and how big a deficit it can figure on running in the new fiscal year. This election year, the Democrats, who control both houses of Congress, could not bring themselves to admit that recession and inflation would push the balanced budget, which they had agreed on proudly in the spring, into deficit by at least $40 billion. Republicans obviously would not help them out of their dilemma. Scoffed Senate Republican Leader Howard Baker of Tennessee: "There's going to be a $60 billion deficit--the $60 billion surprise, I call it. The majority party wants to postpone the evil day. They don't want to belly up to that bar."

At the start of the fiscal year, Congress had not approved a single one of 13 regular appropriations bills. The House did say that the Defense Department could spend $157 billion before Sept. 30, 1981, an increase of $19 billion that both Democrats and Republicans regard as popular with most voters, but the Senate did not even get around to taking up that measure.

Bureaucrats, however, have watched the politicians squabble on Capitol Hill in the past, and they were unperturbed. The Government went on functioning, and twelve hours into the new fiscal year Congress finally passed the resolution that permits federal agencies to spend money at the fiscal 1980 rate until Dec. 15.

How much federal departments and agencies can spend after Dec. 15 will depend on the lame-duck session of Congress; and though it likely will pass some appropriations bills, it probably will have to put through another continuing resolution to enable much of the Government to function. The session will be attended by some 40 Senators and Representatives who are retiring, plus many others who will have been defeated for reelection. If Carter is reelected, Congress will stall until he can shape his plans for a second term. If Reagan wins, Congress will also stall, until the new President gets his Administration organized and determines his budget strategy.

The most serious consequence could be the breakdown of the streamlined budget process that House and Senate leaders proudly enacted only six years ago. This would mean a return to the days when Congress voted appropriations for specific departments and agencies and passed tax bills with little regard for the overall consequences to the federal deficit and U.S. economy. Indeed, some Senators and Representatives would not be sorry to see that happen. They resent the authority that the budget committees have acquired--in theory, at least. But as last week's performance showed, the House and Senate are far from getting their budget houses in order. sb

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