LEGISLATIVE BRANCH THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1976. Mr. SHIPLEY. The committee will please come to order. NEW CHAIRMAN We have a new chairman of the subcommittee this year. I want all of the junior members to realize it isn't hard to become a chairman of a subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropriations. If you can stay around for 17 or 18 years you might eventually make it. Anyway, it is a pleasure for me to have the high honor and privilege to serve as chairman of this important committee. COMMENDATION OF THE HONORABLE BOB CASEY The reason I am in this position is because of the resignation from the House of our good friend and past chairman, Bob Casey of Texas. He handled this committee including many of the problems some of which I guess were quite emotional, for a number of years. He did a very able job and was very capable in being able to handle those touchy situations in such a way that they worked out to the benefit of both the Congress and the country. I realize I have some very big shoes to fill in replacing my good friend, Bob Casey. I know we all wish him well in his new assignment as a member of the Federal Maritime Commission. COMMITTEE RULES The rules of the committee, I might say, Mr. Coughlin, are going to be very open and very democratic. We will have a good working committee. I want the members to have every opportunity to spend as much time as they want on any given part of the hearings. Anytime you want to go to the 5-minute rule, just say so and we will but I don't think it will be necessary because I don't think we will have any conflict on time. As we go through the hearings, I would hope that any of the members who do have questions would not hesitate to ask them. There is one thing that does bother me. I heard that the total printing costs for printing the hearings of the House Appropriations Committee last year was over $1.6 million. It cost $38,011 to print the hearings for this subcommittee. I would like to attempt in this subcommittee, even though it is one of the smaller subcommittees, to cut down on the volume of the hearings and the volume of information that is submitted for the record. I would like to ask the staff at this time to scrutinize very closely (1) any insertions by the witnesses or even by the members and to keep them at a minimum. I think that it is incumbent on all of us to be able to make some contribution in cutting down the expenses not only in other areas of government but right here within the House of Representatives. I would appreciate it if the committee members would cooperate. Mr. Coughlin, as minority leader I would appreciate it if you would have your members cooperate in this regard also. SUMMARY OF LEGISLATIVE BRANCH BUDGET REQUEST The committee will be considering budget requests totalling $797,377,610 for 1977 which is an increase of $55,939,607 over the 1976 appropriations enacted to date. These figures, of course, exclude the Senate items and items under the Architect of the Capitol for the Senate. At this point in the record we will insert the comparative statement appearing on pages II through VIII of the subcommittee print. [The comparative statement referred to follows:] COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF NEW BUDGET (OBLIGATIONAL) AUTHORITY FOR 1976 AND THE BUDGET ESTIMATES FOR 1977 [Excludes Senate items and items under Architect of the Capitol for the Senate] |