Statement on Signing the Departments of Labor, and Health, Education, and Welfare Appropriation Act, 1975.

I HAVE signed H.R. 15580, the 1975 appropriations act for the Departments of Labor and Health, Education, and Welfare and related agencies.

The Congress intended that the appropriations provided in H.R. 15580 should not exceed the fiscal year 1975 budget. Nevertheless, amounts included in the bill for mandatory Federal payments for public assistance are $1.2 billion below the estimates in the budget. The conferees' report on the bill, however, explicitly states that the "Conferees are acutely aware of the need to control inflation and of the need to restrain spending as one means to achieve this objective." The report further states: "The Conferees have no intention of approving new budget (obligational) authority which will ultimately result in spending in excess of the total budget estimate for the bill." In conclusion, the conferees expressed the willingness of the Congress to consider fully deferrals and rescissions submitted by the President to achieve these objectives.

I commend the Congress on this responsible approach to reducing infiationary pressures. I believe, however, that further review of mandatory public assistance spending will confirm the need for significantly higher spending than provided for in H.R. 15580. In the meantime, I will submit, as expected by the report of the conferees, deferrals to restrain spending for discretionary programs under this bill.