The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI, No. 6-S Ann Arbor, Michigan-Wednesday, May 13, 1981 Sixteen Pages
Senate
approves
budget
From AP and UPI
WASHINGTON - The Senate
overwhelmingly approved a 1982
budget limit of $700.8 billion last
night, handing President Reagan
a second major legislative vic-
tory within days for his proposed
plan and spending cuts.
The vote was 78 to 20 in favor of
the non-binding plan, which is
similar on virtually all major
points to the $689 billion measure
passed last week by the
Democratic-controlled House.
AIDES SAID House and Senate
negotiators would begin work
today on ironing out the differen-
ces - mostly technical - and ex-
pressed hope a compromise
could be approved in both houses
by the end of the week.
The final outcome of the Senate
vote was never in doubt, since
most of the majority Republicans.
and many Democrats had long
indicated they would support the
Reagan-backed proposal, which
recommends a $50.5 billion
deficit in 1912. It calls for a
balanced budget in 1984, but that
goal is contingent upon more than
$22 billion in future spending cuts
not yet identified by the ad-
ministration.
For the present, the plan calls
for $36.9 billion in spending cuts
from social programs for 1982,
and provides for the accelerated
defense spending Reagan wants.
And it leaves room for the three-
year, across-the-board tax cut of
30 percent favored by the
president.
IN A LAST-MINUTE sweet-
ner added at the initiative of
Republicans, the Senate voted 95-
3 to provide $1.7 billion to make
sure federal civil service and
military pensioners get a cost-of-
living increase next March.
Without the change, nc retirees
would have had to wait 18 mon-
ths, until Oct. 1, 1982, for their
next raise.
Despite several last minute at-
tempts to change the plan, most
Democrats supported the
blueprint, with the loudest com-
plaints coming from badly out-
numbered liberals.
Sen. Alan Cranston of Califor-
nia, the Democratic whip, op-
posed the measure, declaring
See SENATE, Page 4
Daily Photo by PAUL ENGSTROM'
Ford speaks at 'U'
FORMER PRESIDENT Gerald Ford speaks to a gathering of more than 500 scientists from
around the world at Rackham Ampitheater yesterday. Ford heralded remote sensing, the
airborne monitoring of the Earth, as one of the greatest technological breakthroughs of our
time. See story, Page 3.
I ______________________
Amtrak
may end
city rail
service
By MARK GINDIN
All Amtrak passenger rail service outside the Nor-
theast - including service in Michigan - will be
eliminated if Congress reduces Amtrak's federal
subsidy as much as the Reagan administration would
like it to, according to Clark Charnetski, chairman of
the Michigan Association of Railroad Passengers.
But figures produced by the Federal Railroad Ad-
ministration in Washington do not agree with those
offered by MARP and dispute their conclusions.
WITH ''HiE CHANGE OF administrations in
Washington, Amtrak's federal funding has been
reduced to $613 million, down $380 million from its
allocations under the Carter administration's
proposed budget, and down $179 million from its
arpount of funding last year. Amtrak President Al,
Boyd has said such a reduction, if approved by
Congress, would mean the cancellation of all rail ser-
vice except for the heavily traveled Northeast
Corridor route between Boston and Washington.
MARP claims the $613 million budgeted by the
Reagan administration will not leave any funds for
the operation of trains outside the Northeast. Amtrak
says it will spend $130 million on equipment already
ordered, $250 million for labor protection (unem-
ployment compensation), $200 million to run the Nor-
theast Corridor, and $25 million to shut down the
remainder of the nationwide system.
Federal Railroad Administrator Robert Blanchette
claims Amtrak's figures for labor protection and
Corridor costs are overestimated by $75 million each,
according to FRA spokeswoman Beth McKay, adding
that the FRA believes that another $150 million can
be made up through increased fares.
THESE DISCREPANCIES are the focal point of
the disagreement between the two parties. Both sides
however, agree that Amtrak can be run more like a
business than it bas in the past.
"We arenot againsthraising the fares on popular
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