CONTENTS General statement and summary of bill Title I-Treasury Department.. Title II-Postal Service. Title III-Executive Office of the President. Title IV-Independent Agencies: Administrative Conference of the United States.. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations Advisory Committee on Federal Pay.. Committee for Purchase From the Blind and Other Severely Handi capped........ Federal Election Commission... General Services Administration.. National Archives and Records Administration Office of Personnel Management.. Merit Systems Protection Board: Salaries and expenses. Office of Special Counsel... Federal Labor Relations Authority.. U.S. Tax Court.... Title V-General provisions, this act.. Title VI-General provisions, departments, agencies, and corporations 102 115 (2) GENERAL STATEMENT AND SUMMARY OF THE BILL The accompanying bill contains recommendations for new budget (obligational) authority for the Treasury Department, the United States Postal Service, the Executive Office of the President, and certain independent agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 1990. The Committee considered budget estimates for fiscal year 1990 in the aggregate amount of $18,418,115,000. Compared to that amount the accompanying bill recommends new budget authority totaling $18,411,603,000, which is $6,512,000 less than the amount requested by the administration and $11,209,000 below the Housepassed bill. The Committee recommendations are also $111,397,000 below the section 302(b) allocation for budget authority for the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriation bill and approximately $82,671,000 below the 302(b) allocation for outlays for the bill. REPROGRAMMING REQUIREMENTS The Committee directs that approval of the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations shall be required for any reprogramming request from an agency, department, or office, when the amount involved is in excess of $500,000, or 10 percent, whichever is greater, in any object class, budget activity, program line item, or program activity. The Committee also requires reprogramming approval by the Committees on Appropriations of the House and Senate if it is clear that such a reprogramming would result in a major change contrary to the program or item presented to and approved by the Committee or the Congress, or if the cumulative effect of past reprogramming actions added to the new action under consideration would exceed the reprogramming dollar threshold established by the Committee in this report. The Committee notes that the conditions outlined in this report apply only to funds included in appropriation accounts and the Federal Buildings Fund. It excludes other revolving funds since revolving fund programs are generally based on demands from external sources and changes to them do not represent a conscious, discretionary change in programs, projects, or activities. However, the Committee does expect the U.S. Customs Service to report reprogramming actions within the Customs user fee accounts to the Committee on Appropriations of the House and Senate in accordance with the restrictions and guidelines outlined in this report. The Committee expects the justifications for proposed reprogramming actions to be clear and strongly documented. Furthermore, except in extraordinary circumstances, reprogramming proposals will not be approved by the Committee with less than 45 days left in the fiscal year, nor will they be approved if they propose actions that would effectively reverse previous congressional directives. TRANSFER OF FUNDS BETWEEN APPROPRIATION ACCOUNTS The administration has requested authority for the Secretary of the Treasury and the Administrator of General Services to transfer funds between appropriation accounts of the Department of the Treasury and General Services Administration, respectively. For the Secretary of the Treasury, a 2-percent transfer authority is being requested, while the Administrator of GSA is requesting authority to transfer up to 1 percent between appropriation accounts for mandatory requirements. The Internal Revenue Service has requested authority to transfer up to 4 percent between its appropriation accounts. The Committee recommends that the Secretary of the Treasury be granted authority to transfer up to 2 percent between appropriation accounts. The Committee has also recommended that the Administrator of General Services be allowed to transfer up to 1 percent between appropriation accounts during fiscal year 1990. The Committee has also approved the requested 4 percent transfer authority for IRS. These transfers will be requested only in emergency situations when the need for such transfer is unforeseen and absolutely critical to the mission supported by the affected appropriation account, and only with prior approval of both the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations. The Committee is concerned that in the past even such limited transfer authority has been overutilized and often used by the agencies for reorganizations that have major policy implications. Such transfers are interpreted by the Committee as circumventing the appropriations process and will not be condoned. Nevertheless, the Committee acknowledges that circumstances do arise during the course of a year whereby a shift of small amounts of money from one account to another at Treasury and GSA could make a significant impact on the agency's ability to address unforeseen contingencies. Therefore, the Committee has granted limited transfer authority for fiscal year 1990 as outlined above. DEFINITION OF PROGRAM, PROJECT, AND ACTIVITY AS PROVIDED FOR BY PUBLIC LAW 99-177 During fiscal year 1990, for purposes of the Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-177), as amended the following information provides the definition of the term "program, project, and activity" for departments and agencies under the jurisdiction of the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Subcommittee. The term "program, project, and activity" shall include the most specific level of budget items identified as a dollar amount in the Treasury, Postal Service, and General Government Appropriations Act, 1990 (H.R. 2989), the House and Senate committee reports (H. Rept. 101-170, and the conference report and accompanying joint explanatory statement of the managers of the committee of conference accompanying that act. (Under the above definition, the Federal Buildings Fund, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing Fund, and other intragovern mental funds are exempt under section 255(g)(1) of Public Law 99177). In implementing a Presidential Order, departments and agencies shall apply the percentage reduction required for fiscal year 1990 pursuant to the provisions of Public Law 99-177, as amended, to each budget item that is listed under said accounts in the budget justifications submitted to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations as modified by subsequent appropriations acts (including joint resolutions providing continuing appropriations), and accompanying House and Senate Committee reports, conference reports, or joint explanatory statements of the committee of confer ence. TOTAL FUNDING FOR TREASURY, POSTAL SERVICE, AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS In addition to the new obligational authority recommended in the accompanying bill, additional significant sums are made available each year for the Treasury Department, the Office of Personnel Management, and other independent agencies under permanent indefinite authority which do not require consideration by the Congress during the annual appropriations process. The principal items in these categories include: payment of interest on the public debt which alone is anticipated to reach $248,086,102,000 in fiscal year 1990; interest on Internal Revenue Service refunds of income tax payments, $1,776,000,000; payment of claims, judgments, and relief acts, $348,900,000; payments in connection with the Civil Service Retirement and Disability Fund, $17,123,730,000; and Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, program expenses, $17,324,000. The Committee also establishes limitations on the use of certain funds within the agencies covered by this act. In addition to the agencies whose funds are derived from direct appropriations, there are other agencies which operate under authorities which exempt them from congressional review, in whole or in part, during the annual appropriations process or, as a matter of fact, from any other regular oversight by the Congress. For example, the U.S. Postal Service, under the Postal Reorganization Act, is authorized to use all of its income from postage and services for its own purposes and to request an appropriation from the Congress for certain subsidies. Therefore, normally only the amount of the subsidy requirement is regularly reviewed by the Congress. In the Treasury Department, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, whose income is derived principally from assessments paid by national banks, is exempt from congressional review, because such assessments are not construed under law to be Government funds. AGENCY ADHERENCE TO ESTIMATES CONTAINED IN BUDGET The Committee believes that the agency budget justifications presented each year outlining the assumptions contained in the President's annual budget should accurately reflect the proposed allocation of resources and activities within the agency budget plan for the coming fiscal year. At the same time, the Committee is cognizant of the fact that economic conditions; program changes; congressional directives; and other unforeseen circumstances often change the assumptions which are built into the President's budget submission in the first few months of the calendar year. Nevertheless, the Committee expects every agency funded in this bill to closely adhere to the estimates presented in their annual budget justifications to the Committee, including its object classification tables, unless funding levels for programs, projects, and activities are specifically altered by the Committee and/or the Congress. In this regard, the Committee expects to receive periodic notification from the agencies if and when they intend to alter the mix of programs, projects, activities, or funding assumptions initially presented in their fiscal year 1990 budget justifications which do not require a formal reprogramming action in accordance with this report. |