Budget Priorities Research Articles

Energy policy in developing countries

Energy investment in developing countries is capital intensive and involves financing problems and difficulties in determining budget priorities. In oil, investment may mean decisions about devolution of control over national resources. In coal, few developing countries have yet fully developed their natural resources. Electricity investment is particularly capital intensive and the sector involves different problems to those of the primary fuel sectors. Natural gas production is expected to increase rapidly over the next few years. In each sector, different problems arise in different developing countries, and the aspects discussed cover a range of the problems that are often encountered.

Eighteen Leading Social Critics Comment: What is the Real Threat to World Peace and Social Security?

What is the real threat to world peace and social security? Is it the prevalent ideology of violence, aggressive nationalism, and militarism? Or is it the maldistribution of resources, technology, and social welfare benefits? How much of itsnational budget must the U.S. allocate to military expenditures? How can the national budget priorities be changed so there is a more realistic funding of social programs? Do we face as great a threat of nuclear annihilation in the '70's and the '80's as we did in the early '60's?

GAO finds Nixon R&D plan mostly ignored

Question: Whatever happened to that strategic approach to the national research and development effort unveiled by the Nixon Administration in a Presidential science and technology message on March 16, 1972? Answer: Not much, apparently, judging from a little noticed General Accounting Office assessment of changes in federal R&D budget allocations as a criterion— albeit a rather shaky one—for determining the extent of the message's implementation. With few exceptions, we were unable to identify substantive changes resulting from it, Elmer B. Staats, Comptroller General of the U.S., said in a statement to the House Science & Technology Committee last month. Staats adds that both the Office of Management & Budget (OMB) and the science adviser, after considering the results of the GAO study, indicated that the Nixon message should not be regarded as an adequate basis for measuring later actions on R&D budget priorities and overall national strategy for science and technology. It clearly did not ...

Long-range forecasting of regional manpower requirements: The state of Illinois in 1980

This paper presents alternate detailed forecasts of occupational requirements for the state of Illinois in 1980. These manpower forecasts, developed on the basis of different national economic policies and Federal budget priorities, are compared with the 1980 Illinois employment projections estimated by the State manpower planning agency and the differences in methodology are analyzed. Sources of possible error in the official State forecasts are indicated and a potentially more accurate picture of Illinois 1980 manpower requirements is developed. It is discussed how the model utilized here could be adapted to other States and regions.

GROWTH AND PATTERNS IN U.S. GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURES, 1956-1972

Recent studies of public expenditures have focussed on the federal budget only. During the 1960's, however, state and local expenditures expanded rapidly, just as federal expenditures did. The growing demand for domestic public services caused state and local outlays to rise and prompted extensive Federal legislation in response to specific domestic problems. An examination of the statistics on public spending by all levels of government over the period 1956-1972 provides a more complete scope for analyses of present controversies over budget priorities.

Reprogramming of Funds by the Defense Department

IT IS CHARACTERISTIC of studies on a bill becomes a law to conclude with the president's signing of the bill. How the bill is later implemented and administered rarely receives attention. Similarly, we follow the process of an appropriation bill up to final passage and lose sight of it thereafter. Yet highly significant actions occur during the postappropriation stage. Members of Congress vote with the understanding that funds will be obligated and spent for certain purposes. Frequently the funds are directed to other purposes by executive departments and agencies. One instrument for executive spending flexibility is of funds within an appropriation-a practice regularly employed by the Department of Defense, Atomic Energy Commission, Department of Interior, Veterans' Administration, and other federal agencies. Despite the magnitude of funds involved and the intriguing questions of congressional control and budget priorities, little has been written about reprogramming. Few students of government have even heard of the term, much less know the details of how it operates. This article shows how reprogramming has developed in the Department of Defense, excluding military construction and the Corps

Alternate manpower forecasts for the coming decade: Second guessing the U.S. department of labor

This paper presents alternate detailed forecasts of U.S. occupational requirements in the coming decade obtained from simulations conducted with the Center for Advanced Computation manpower forecasting model. These alternate manpower forecasts, developed on the basis of different mixes of federal social programs and budget priorities, are compared with the long-range employment projections developed by the U.S. Department of Labor, and the differences in methodology are analyzed. The sources of potential error in the Labor Department forecasts are identified, and a potentially more accurate picture of the shape of U.S. manpower requirements in the coming decade is presented.

The President's Page: U.S. magnetic observatories

Transition periods are always marked with anxieties, and there is no exception in the imminent transfer of magnetic observatories from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the Department of Commerce to the Geological Survey of the Department of Interior. The transfer comes at a time when science and technology are on the defensive in a climate for dramatic national change and as new political‐economic constraints intensify competing pressures on the orientation of budgetary priorities and allocation of resources. Goals must be more vigorously defended and defined with respect to relevance and importance to society. Clearly, the time has come for the geophysical community to state its case for a national commitment to sustain and improve observatories. In this way the geophysicists can supply needed information to the administrators responsible for the difficult decisions in selecting programs given imposed restrictions.

Congressmen, Nurses Ranking Senators Question Budget Priorities

Congressmen, Nurses Ranking Senators Question Budget Priorities

Manpower impacts of changes in federal budget priorities

This paper presents the results obtained from computer simulations conducted to determine the sentitivity of occupational employment demands to shifting patterns of U.S. Federal expenditures. The general model utilized is described and the effects of four hypothesized shifts in national priorities upon U. S. manpower requirements in the early 1960's are estimated. Selected occupations are classified and ranked according to their sensitivity to changing patterns of resource allocation between military and civilian activities. From these findings implications for economic and manpower forecasting are derived and discussed.

Federal Budget Priorities for Research and Development

Federal Budget Priorities for Research and Development

Pressures and Priorities in the National Budget

I WOULD LIKE to talk to you about how our national budget priorities are identified, with particular reference to the USDA component. I would also like to share with you some of the realities I found about the pressures that shape budget priorities. Finally, I would like to raise some questions concerning our profession and the ways in which we (and the USDA) might influence budget priorities so that our research-education work becomes increasingly pertinent to the persisting economic and social problems of nonmetropolitan America. The federal budget is a highly complex document. During its makeup, the Bureau of Budget (BOB) provides the only arena in which all the financial claims, aspirations, and despairs of all the federal agencies and programs are present at one time in one document.' The multitude of different federal agencies, and the fact that each is quite financially independent of the others, inevitably leads to competition and confusion when it comes to asking for and obtaining funds. The Bureau's budgetary process must resolve these conflicts, at least in the short run, in order to develop a financial plan for the Executive. It does so by meshing the various objectives and priorities that it can identify (economic, political, personal, etc.) with the design of public programs, their possible funding, and their evaluation responsibilities. Ultimately Congress decides who gets what funds by direct appropriation. This budgetary process takes place within a hierarchy of varied goals. For example, the President has stated he wants peace, full employment, and reduced inflation. The 14-man National

The Federal Budget and Expenditure Control

Experience over the past year with administra tion and congressional efforts to restrain federal expenditures has emphasized the need for better budget control procedures and mechanisms than now exist. Although expenditures can only be made on the basis of prior authorization of Congress, primary control of the levels of annual spending is exercised by the Executive. Item-veto authority would strengthen its con trol. Congressional control of a given year's expenditures through the conventional appropriations process is limited to a small portion of the total budget—about one-third of total for nondefense programs. Congress could increase its control over annual expenditures by adopting the practice of setting ceil ings on expenditures or at least on obligations, and preferably in conjunction with a single-package appropriations bill in place of the present multibill practice of appropriating. The making of decisions by the Executive and Congress on budget priorities, with respect to both the total and its individual parts, could be improved by creation of a program-evaluation commission. Finally, creation of a joint congressional budget committee consisting of a relatively small number of majority and minority members of the appropriations and tax-writing committees would encourage over-all budget decisions by the Congress instead of piecemeal decisions alone.