Statement Urging Congressional Action on the Federal Economy Act.

AT A TIME when the budget must be defended against excessive spending, and when every dollar must be directed to urgent national needs, an unnecessary leakage of $2 million a day by virtue of delayed action by the Congress is indefensible.

Almost 6 months ago, I sent to the Congress my Federal economy message which listed 57 actions which could be taken to reduce unnecessary Federal spending. The Congress was asked to take 15 of these actions and I was prepared to take those remaining.

My total savings target in the budget was $ 2, 132,000,000, of which $ 1, 150,000,000 could be achieved by executive action. The remaining $982,000,000 in savings required congressional legislative action.

In those matters requiring enactment of new laws, the Congress appears to be proceeding on only $449,000,000 of savings, 46 percent of its goal. Further, the Congress is endeavoring to prevent me from achieving $167,000,000 in savings. In total, the Congress would leave $707,000,000 unsaved in fiscal year 1971, or nearly one-third of the total I proposed.

In those areas where I have been left free by the Congress to act, I am terminating, restructuring, and reforming programs. The savings from my actions total $983,000,000 and represent 100 percent of those savings available to me and not affected by congressional action.

Because the Congress has not addressed the potential savings with a sense of urgency, an average of $2 million is being wasted every day on programs that are obsolete, low priority, or inefficient. Congressional inaction is extremely expensive.

I urge the Congress to take prompt action, as I have done, to put the public interest ahead of the special interests---to put an end to those costly "sacred cows" that have been allowed to exist long after their original purposes have been served.