These items are very difficult to locate from a U.S. manufacturer. Efforts are continuing. The components for this item are made in Tiawan and assembled in the U.S.. Very few are carried. There is no comparable U.S. made item. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1980. JOINT COMMITTEE ON TAXATION WITNESSES HON. AL ULLMAN, VICE CHAIRMAN, JOINT COMMITTEE ON TAXATION, ACCOMPANIED BY BERNARD M. (BOB) SHAPIRO, CHIEF OF STAFF, AND LEON W. KLUD, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE CHIEF OF STAFF Mr. BENJAMIN. Mr. Chairman, we will proceed. Mr. Ullman and Mr. Shapiro, we are glad to welcome you back as vice-chairman and staff director of the Joint Committee on Taxation. The official budget request for fiscal year 1981 is $2,670,000, which is $215,000 over the level appropriated to date for fiscal year 1980. We have included your submission as of January 15 as pages 51 through 60 in our justifications, and we are now ready for a general statement from you, Mr. Ullman. CHAIRMAN ULLMAN'S STATEMENT Mr. ULLMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me express my appreciation for the promptness with which you hear us and the courtesy which you show us. You are familiar I know with the function of the joint committee. It does have a unique role in Congress, providing professional, nonpartisan staff analysis on all tax legislation for the Committee on Ways and Means in the House and the Finance Committee in the Senate, as well as for Members of the House and the Senate in providing that special expertise. I am very proud of the way that this joint committee staff has functioned. It is very professional. It is very efficient. It is very frugal in its management, and we feel the budget we are submitting is one that is frugal and tight, as we recognize it should be under the circumstances that we face this year. As you have indicated, the joint committee fiscal 1981 budget estimate is $2,670,000, of which $2,460,000 is for personnel funding and $210,000 is for nonpersonnel funding. This compares to a total of $2,455,000 approved in the fiscal 1980 legislative appropriation. Most of the projected increase, $134,000, is accounted for by the October 1979 Federal pay adjustment. The fiscal 1981 budget also includes $36,000 for merit salary increases, which is we think very reasonable amount for the size and professional qualities of the staff, as well as $38,000 for one additional staff revenue estimator. I might point out that there has been an increasing workload placed on the joint committee staff, with members of both the House and Senate requesting technical and revenue cost analysis of numerous tax bills and alternative proposals. As you know, there are thousands of those introduced or proposed by Members through the year. This is particularly acute for the revenue estimating staff, especially when there are major tax bills being considered in the Congress at the same time as there are numerous minor tax bills and proposals that require revenue cost analysis. We have them all tied up now in the windfall profits tax legislation, as well as on various other tax proposals being moved and heard in the tax committees. With Budget Act requirements, the revenue cost analysis is a major consideration in analyzing a bill. The revenue estimating staff and other staff as well-have spent countless evening and weekend hours working on tax legislation that has been reported by the tax committees during this Congress. We are now of course deeply wrapped up in the energy tax bill, and the decisions that we hope we will make today and tomorrow will encompass the whole week of intensive effort on the part of the staff in order to even get the basic work done so that we can present the conference report. Mr. Chairman, I urge your favorable consideration of the joint committee's fiscal 1981 budget request, and the fiscal 1980 pay adjustment supplemental pay appropriation, keeping in mind the need of the staff to provide that high level of professional tax analysis to members of the tax-writing committees, and further to all other Members of the House. Mr. BENJAMIN. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We will also include in the record your formal statement that you presented to us prior to the hearing, as well as the January 15 letter which I have already included in the compilation of justifications. [The information follows:] STATEMENT OF THE HONORABLE AL ULLMAN, VICE CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON LEGISLATIVE BRANCH OF THE HOUSE FISCAL 1981 AND THE PAY ADJUSTMENT SUPPLEMENTAL February 6, 1980 Mr. Chairman, I am here to discuss with your Subcommittee the fiscal 1981 budget request for the Joint Committee on Taxation and also the request for the pay adjustment supplemental appropriation for fiscal 1980. The Joint Committee's fiscal 1981 budget estimate was transmitted to the House Finance Office in October 1979, and that budget estimate was transmitted to the Office of Management and Budget for inclusion in the Government's Fiscal 1981 Budget. The projected fiscal 1981 budget total for the Joint Committee is $2,670,000, of which $2,460,000 is for personnel funding and $210,000 is for non-personnel funding. A letter dated January 15, 1980, to your Subcommittee (a copy of which I ask be included for the record) was submitted indicating the basis for the fiscal 1981 budget estimate, as well as the breakdown of the total between personnel and non-personnel funding. I will explain this further after briefly mentioning the fiscal 1980 pay adjustment supplemental request. |