The report continued, "The ratio was fully taken into account in the 1983 financing provisions."

Mr. Ward was critical of the House Democrats' plan for not including state legislative offices in its spending caps and public financing provisions.

The public financing provision calls for a voluntary system in which Senate general elections would be partly financed through check-offs on Federal income tax returns.

The financing provisions are in-equitable, unconscionable and indefensible.

In a survey of 590 legislators at the conference, 90 percent agreed that requirements without accompanying financing provisions were making it increasingly difficult to balance state budgets.

Mr. Dole and other Republicans say they are most concerned about the centerpiece of the Byrd-Boren bill, the public financing provision.

He called the initial words of section 5 important as drawing attention to the 'paramount' financing provisions of section 7(3).

But in the first major test vote tonight, the House rejected a Democratic-led procedural maneuver to reverse the earlier decision to drop the financing provision.

The regions feel the financing provisions are complicated, partly unclear and open to interpretation, although the aim has certainly been otherwise.

The farm slump got so bad at the beginning of this year that passage of a major new financing provision became all but certain.