Bucking the Budget

Rarely has a President attacked so many vested interests at one time as Richard Nixon has with his proposed budget cuts. Rarely have so many vested interests joined in trying to make the President back down. Lobbyists have poured into Washington to seek out and pressure members of Congress, many of whom welcome the invasion. They themselves are angry at the President for impounding funds that Congress has appropriated.

As usual, the farmers were among the first to arrive on the scene. Some 1,500 members of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association gathered to denounce a prospective increase in interest for REA loans. They were joined by another veteran lobby, the National Farmers Union, which is aghast at the President's abolition of the Rural Environmental Assistance Program, a durable piece of pork barrel that distributes $225 million a year among all 50 states. So successful were the lobbyists' initial efforts that the House Agriculture Committee quickly reported out a bill that would require the President to spend the money appropriated for REAP.

To keep the heat on, N.F.U. will continue to fly and bus into Washington hundreds of farmers. "There is heat, of course," observes Republican Senator Robert Dole of Kansas, "but it isn't unbearable. Hell, as long as I stay under my bed I can hardly feel it." Replies a top N.F.U. lobbyist: "I've spoken to Bob Dole and he better stay under his bed. If he doesn't feel the heat now, he will."

Helping the farmers is an unlikely ally: the National Limestone Institute. Although only 4% of the industry's output is purchased by farmers, Lobbyist Robert Koch is putting up a 100% fight to save REAP. The institute has sent out 15,000 protest letters to various policymakers as well as to county agents and farmers.

Less organized than the embattled farmers but gearing up for heavy combat are a variety of other pressure groups:

> The National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors issued a report condemning the phasing out of several urban programs. Revenue sharing, the report complained, would not make up for the money lost by the elimination of categorical grants.

> The Committee for the Full Funding of Education, representing such organizations as the National Education Association and the American Association of School Administrators, is going to try to restore all slashes in school spending. Such is its strength in Congress that it has never failed to get all it asked for in previous years.

> A National Ad Hoc Housing Committee has been formed by about 70 organizations, including the National Association of Home Builders, the League of Women Voters and the N.A.A.C.P. The committee does not have the foot soldiers, however, to mount a major offensive in Washington against the moratorium on federally financed housing. Unlike some farmers whose income has been fattened by subsidies over the years, most people who need housing are too poor to be able to take time off from their jobs.

> The National Federation of Federal Employees, boring from within the Executive establishment, is not only trying to prevent many job cuts, it is also seeking an October pay increase that is not included in the budget.

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