GORDON E. CASEY GEORGE E. EVANS NOTE. The Surveys and Investigations supervisory staff is supplemented by selected personnel borrowed on a reimbursable basis for varying lengths of time from various agencies to staff up specific studies and investigations. The current average annual full-time personnel equivalent is approximately 42. BARBARA L. CHAMBERS PAUL V. FARMER SANDRA A. GILBERT ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT MARCIA L. MATTS GENEVIEVE A. MEALY CHRISTINE STOCKMAN BETTY LOU TAYLOR GEMMA M. WEIBLINGER TONI WILLIAMS DEPARTMENTS OF LABOR AND HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 1976 DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE MONDAY, MARCH 3, 1975. SECRETARY OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE WITNESSES HON. CASPAR W. WEINBERGER, SECRETARY JOHN D. YOUNG, ASSISTANT SECRETARY, COMPTROLLER STEPHEN KURZMAN, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR LEGISLATION CHARLES MILLER, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY, COMPTROLLER WILFORD FORBUSH, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECREARY, BUDGET Mr. FLOOD. The committee will come to order. We now begin hearings on the budget estimates for the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare for fiscal year 1976 and we have the pleasure of having with us the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Mr. Caspar W. Weinberger. I think we should have your biographical sketch placed in the record at this point, out of abundance of caution, if nothing else. Secretary WEINBERGER. All right, sir. [The biographical sketch follows:] Caspar W. Weinberger became the Nation's 10th Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare on February 12, 1973. He was nominated for the post by President Nixon on November 28, 1972, and took the oath of office at San Clemente, Calif., his home State. He is also responsible for the development, implementation, and coordination of Federal policy in the human resources area. Secretary Weinberger has served in the Nixon Administration since January 13, 1970, when he became Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. After 7 months in this assignment, he moved to the newly created Office of Management and Budget as Deputy Director. He assumed the leadership of OMB on June 12, 1972, serving as Director until he was sworn in as HEW Secretary. Born in San Francisco, August 18, 1917, Secretary Weinberger attended public schools there. He was graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1938 where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He received his bachelor of laws degree from Harvard Law School in 1941. Shortly after his graduation from law school, Secretary Weinberger entered the Army as an infantry private. He served more than 3 years in the Pacific with the 41st Infantry Division and as a member of General Douglas MacArthur's intelligence staff. He was discharged in 1945 as a captain. Following his wartime service, the Secretary spent 2 years as law clerk to Federal Judge William E. Orr of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He then entered private practice. In 1952, while in private law practice, he was elected to the Assembly of the California State Legislature from the Twenty-first District in San Francisco. He won reelection without opposition in 1954 and 1956. (1) During his years in the California Legislature, Secretary Weinberger was Chairman of both the Assembly Committee on Government Organization and the Joint Assembly-Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholic Beverage Control. His leadership produced a constitutional amendment reorganizing the State's alcoholic beverage control machinery, and the creation of a unified Department of Water Resources. Newsmen covering the 1955 legislative session in California named the Secretary as the most able member of the State legislature. From 1959 to 1968, Secretary Weinberger pursued simultaneous careers as a lawyer, writer, and television moderator. He was a partner in the San Francisco law firm of Heller, Ehrman, White, and McAuliffe, and wrote a twice-weekly column on California State Government carried in many State newspapers. He also reviewed books for the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco magazine, and moderated a weekly public affairs television show, "Profile: Bay Area," on KQED-TV, the San Francisco educational television station. Secretary Weinberger headed the Commission on California State Government and Organization-known as the State's "Little Hoover Commission"-from 1967 to 1968. On February 1, 1968, he was named State Director of Finance by Governor Ronald Reagan, serving in the post until he left for Washington to chair the Federal Trade Commission. Secretary Weinberger is married to the former Jane Dalton. They are the parents of two children, a daughter and a son. Mr. FLOOD. Do you have anyone with you you would like us to meet? Secretary WEINBERGER. Yes; I would like to present first of all the assistant secretary for Legislation, Mr. Kurzman; assistant secretary, comptroller, Mr. Young; and his deputy, Mr. Charles Miller. We have deliberately held the delegation down in response to your suggestion, Mr. Chairman. GENERAL STATEMENT Mr. FLOOD. Mr. Secretary, I see you have a prepared statement. Secretary WEINBERGER. Yes, sir. Mr. FLOOD. How do you wish to handle this. Secretary WEINBERGER. Any way that is agreeable to you. I can read it or put it in the record, whichever you perfer. Mr. FLOOD. It is your show. Secretary WEINBERGER. I will present it. It is brief. It is a short one and I have a couple of additions that I thought I would make to it and I will include those. So I will say then, Mr. Chairman, it is always of course a pleasure to have an opportunity to appear before you and to have the opportunity to discuss our programs. We think it is especially important to view our HEW budget as a whole before proceeding to examine its individual parts. The HEW budget is one part of a comprehensive administration plan to overcome the current economic crisis. In broad outline, this plan proposes a tax reduction to provide an immediate stimulus to the economy and restraint on the growth of Federal spending to keep the deficits caused by the economic slump to a manageable size. Even with the President's proposals to restrain Federal spending, the 1976 deficit will be nearly $52 billion and the deficits over the 2-vear period will exceed $86 billion. If Congress does not adopt the President's proposals or does not propose equally stringent alternatives, $20 billion or more could be added to the 1975 and 1976 deficits. Unfortunately, I think that the Congress has already started on that path because I understand that all of the proposed rescissions af fecting our area have been rejected by the committee, so we have begun on a path that could add very substantially to these deficits. Such a result could push interest rates up again and make it that much more difficult to achieve economic recovery. Even worse, such action would add to inflation, already at totally unacceptable levels. And we should never forget that inflation has its greatest impact on the people we exist to serve the needy, aged, and handicapped. In 1976 the HEW budget of $118.5 billion in outlays makes up a little more than one-third of the Federal budget, and, of course, makes us far and away the largest of all of the Federal departments and as a matter of fact larger than all but about four or five countries in the world. Obviously, therefore, our Department must play a significant role in any effort to control the growth of Federal spending. Since this must be done without serious loss to the millions of people served by our programs, we have necessarily faced some extremely difficult choices. Over the past 5 years, the HEW budget has increased an average of about 15 percent a year. As the President noted in his budget message, Government spending on domestic assistance alone would grow to half the gross national product during the next 20 years if the pattern of the last 20 years continues. That should be reemphasized, Mr. Chairman. If the Government spending on domestic assistance alone, not defense, on domestic assistance alone, continues at the general pace that it has, the Government spending on that will amount to something like half of the gross national product in the next 20 years. In 1976, the President's budget proposals would still allow a growth. of our budget by 7.7 percent, about one-half the historical growth rate. To accomplish this slowdown in the growth of HEW spending and that is not a reduction, that is a slowdown in the growth-we have asked Congress to take actions, including both rescissions of appropriations and amendments to substantive law, which would reduce spending by about $8.1 billion. If Congress takes no action on these proposals and, as I mentioned a moment ago, you have rejected our requested rescissions, the cumulative 1975-76 deficit would be increased by $8.1 billion and the HEW budget would continue to grow at 15 percent or more, just as a result of a failure of Congress to agree to the President's proposals. If Congress adds new spending, the situation would be worse and the resulting inflation would hurt the needy, aged, and handicapped more than any illusory gain from new or higher spending. In broad terms, the 1976 HEW budget embodies the following general principles: For the noncontrollabe programs we are asking Congress to adopt amendments to the authorizing legislation which would slow down the growth that would otherwise occur. In doing this, we are not proposing any reduction in benefits but are asking that either the increase be reduced or for States to assume a larger share of the financial burden. For the controllable programs, we are seeking to remain within the revised appropriation request for fiscal year 1975. The 1976 |