уз Anderson, Hon. John B., a Representative in Congress from the State Cederberg, Hon. Elford A., a Representative in Congress from the State Conte, Hon. Silvio O., a Representative in Congress from the State of Culver, Hon. John C., a Representative in Congress from the State of Iowa- Danielson, Hon. George E., a Representative in Congress from the State Eckhardt, Hon. Bob, a Representative in Congress from the State of Ervin, Hon. Sam J. Jr., a U.S. Senator from the State of North Carolina__ Esch, Hon. Marvin L., a Representative in Congress from the State of Jones, Hon. James R., a Representative in Congress from the State of 315 Leggett, Hon. Robert L., a Representative in Congress from the State 179 Moakley, Hon. Joe, a Representative in Congress from the State of 407 Perper. Hon. Claude, a Representative in Congress from the State of 319 (III) PUBLIC WITNESSES Burt, Robert A., professor of law, University of Michigan_. Page 359 Cooper, Poseph, professor of political science, Rice University-- 426 408 Pollak, Louis H., professor of law, Yale University 380 MATERIAL SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD GOVERNMENT WITNESSES Sneed, Hon. Joseph T., Deputy Attorney General, statement_-_. CONGRESSIONAL WITNESSES 253 Abzug, Hon. Bella S., a Representative in Congress from the State of New 499 Alexander, Hon. Bill, a Representative in Congress from the State of Arkansas, statement__. 493 Brotzman, Hon. Donald G., a Representative in Congress from the State of Colorado, statement 490 Evans, Hon. Frank E., a Representative in Congress from the State of Colorado, letter to Chairman Madden_. 491 Ford, Hon. William D., a Representative in Congress from the State of 491 Harrington, Hon. Michael J., a Representative in Congress from the State of Massachusetts, statement__ 495 Hungate, Hon. William L., a Representative in Congress from the State of 489 IMPOUNDMENT REPORTING AND REVIEW WEDNESDAY, MARCH 28, 1973 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, The committee met at 10:30 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 2154, Rayburn Office Building, Hon. Ray J. Madden (chairman of the committee) presiding. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will come to order. I might say that the reason why the Rules Committee is holding hearings in this room, the Government Operations Committee room, instead of our regular room over in the Capitol is because of the interest not only locally but over the Nation in the impounding legislation now pending in Congress. In these hearings we will proceed with the chairman of the Appropriations Committee, who is one of, I think, 34 Members who have filed bills on this subject. He will be followed by other witnesses today, including Mr. Cederberg, the ranking minority member of the Appropriations Committee. Tomorrow, on account of Chairman Holifield using this committee room, we will proceed with the hearings down the hall in the Foreign Affairs Committee room. I wish to thank the Foreign Affairs Committee and also Chairman Holifield for allowing us to use their rooms. The hearings tomorrow will be in room 2172, on this floor. I might state that today we start hearings on one of the most serious constitutional challenges ever to confront Congress. The legislative impoundment crisis brought on by the Nixon administration demands firm and prompt exposure not only to the Members of Congress but to the Nation. Members of Congress and the Senate have been deluged with mail and telephone calls in protest from their constituents against President Nixon's impounding of numerous domestic programs passed by the Congress in recent years, and this legislation is for the benefit of millions of American citizens, mostly in the middle lower income brackets of the Nation. These impoundments include legislation pertaining to our elder citizens, unemployed, handicapped, veterans, and those needing Government assistance. The American public should know that since President Nixon was inaugurated over 4 years ago approximately $11.1 billion of funds have. been impounded which cover legislation on housing, education, health, transportation, antipollution, hospital construction, veterans hospitals, small business loans, watershed and flood prevention, help (1) for domestic farm labor, food stamp programs, rural electrification loans, waste, sewer facilities, and so forth. In the past 4 years we have poured billions upon billions of dollars into Southeast Asia and other countries throughout the world. Now we have concluded that war and we ought to start putting some of this money into domestic priorities where it belongs. President Nixon has set out deliberately to achieve an unwarranted concentration of power. He has sought to tighten his rule at the expense of the other branches of Government, including Congress. For several years now President Nixon has waged his undeclared war on Congress. In 1971, the Nixon administration said it would withhold more than $12 billion in highway and urban program money. The funds were not impounded to effect savings or to fight inflation. The withholding was designed solely to shift the balance of budget priorities to those projects which the administration preferred. The same bias treatment showed in the administration's handling of public works for fiscal 1972. Mr. Nixon pressed ahead with all the projects he wanted but without exception he deferred all the other projects which the Congress had voted for and which he had signed into law. And then just this year, 1973, the administration announced yet another massive impoundment-$8.7 billion in funds voted by the Congress and $6.6 billion in contract authority. President Nixon has justified much of his impoundment action as necessary to fight inflation. I think we ought to place the blame for this inflation and its skyrocketing food prices where it belongs—at President Nixon's door. The Congress voted Mr. Nixon the absolute authority to control wages, prices, interest, rents, food costs and so forth, in August 1970, and he let it remain at his desk for 1 year before he acted upon it. In August 1971, in a nationwide television broadcast, he announced his 90-day freeze which was a failure. He then followed with phase 2, and now phase 3. Read your morning papers to see how successful those phases have proven to be. I would note that President Nixon's own budgeting recommendations have helped spur inflation. This year he has submitted to the Congress his fifth consecutive big deficit budget. These deficits total more than $100 billion and they have accounted for the accumulation of one-fourth of all the national debt. The national debt is over $460 billion. In President Nixon's administration, one-fourth of that $460 billion has been saddled onto the backs of the American people. Mr. Nixon has blamed the Congress for the economic crisis he precipitated. And then he has used the economic emergency for justification for his impoundment actions. He has elevated his distaste for consultation with Congress into the doctrine he calls executive privilege, by refusing to consult with Congress. He has expanded the spurious privilege to prevent members of his staff from testifying before Congress on the Watergate scandal. When the truth is known about that matter it will eclipse all the scandals of the Harding administration, including the Teapot Dome, and all the Grant administration scandals put together. |