Comments on Forty-Two Proposed Deferrals of Budget Authority Contained in the President's Second Special Message for Fiscal Year 1978

The President's second special message to Congress for fiscal year 1978 contained 42 deferral proposals affecting a total of $1,480,612,000 in budget authority. Information provided in the deferral proposals for the following agencies is correct, and the actions being proposed in these cases have been clearly and accurately stated: the Department of Agriculture; the Department of Commerce; the Department of Defense; the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; the Department of the Interior; the Department of Justice; the Department of the Treasury; the General Services Administration; the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission; the Interstate Commerce Commission; the U.S. Information Agency; and the United States Railway Association.

The deferral message states that the expiration date for all of the deferred multiple-year budget authority for the U.S. Coast Guard is September 30, 1980, although the expiration date for $47,000 of the deferred funds is September 30, 1979. Review of the deferral for the operating expenses of the Plenum Fill Experiment under the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) established that the amount deferred is $2.3 million instead of the $1.5 million stated in the message. The deferral message stated that the effects of the deferral of the budget authority for ERDA's Intense Neutron Source Facility plant and capital equipment on total project costs and project completion date could not be determined pending resolution of the project funding. This deferral could result in a delay of from 6 to 9 months and an increase in the total program cost of about $1 million.