AMENDMENTS TO FEDERAL AIRPORT ACT TUESDAY, JUNE 7, 1955 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON INTERSTATE AND FOREIGN COMMERCE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AVIATION, The subcommittee met at 10: 40 a. m., in room G-16, United States Capitol, Senator A. S. Mike Monroney (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Monroney, Bible, Schoeppel, and Payne. Also present: Edward Sweeney, committee aviation counsel and professional staff member assigned to this hearing. Senator MONRONEY. The Aviation Subcommittee will again be in order. We have witnesses today testifying on S. 1855, a bill to provide for a 4-year authorization for airport appropriation construction on a matching basis of $63 million. We are pleased to have Mayor William B. Hartsfield, of Atlanta, Ga., representing the American Municipal Association. Mayor Hartsfield, would you come forward? Mayor HARTSFIELD. Yes, sir. Senator MONRONEY. Just make yourself comfortable and testify in any way you wish to. STATEMENT OF HON. WILLIAM B. HARTSFIELD, MAYOR OF ATLANTA, GA., ON BEHALF OF THE AMERICAN MUNICIPAL ASSOCIATION Mayor HARTSFIELD. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I am Mayor William B. Hartsfield, of Atlanta, and I am appearing before you today as chairman of the airport sponsors committee of the American Municipal Association. In such capacity I speak on behalf of the 12,000 member cities of the association and more particularly for those 1,142 communities, large and small, that have obligations under the Federal-aid airport program. I have prepared and would ask your kind permission to submit for the record, in full, a formal statement supporting S. 1855. If there are no objections, Mr. Chairman, I would like to cover briefly a few highlights from this formal statement and present a few charts, copies of which have been reproduced and made a part of the testimony. I would also hope that this procedure will permit sufficient time to answer any questions you may have with respect to these comments. The sponsors of the Nation's civil airports are deeply grateful for the action proposed by this committee's bill, S. 1855, to authorize the Secretary of Commerce to obligate $63 million during each of the next 4 fiscal years for payment of the Federal share of the cost of the construction and improvement of airports needed to develop an adequate nationwide system of public airports. This proposed legislation would give airport sponsors in the continental United States definite assurance that $60 million will be available to them for grants during each of the next succeeding 4 fiscal years. It would enable airport sponsors to undertake planning, financing, and other preliminary work with definite assurance that funds for payment of the Federal share will be available on the 50-50 basis provided by the Airport Act whenever the sponsor is able to start construction within the designated 4-year period. We are pleased to note that the definite 4-year grant authorization you have proposed would very nearly cover the balance of the $520 million national airport plan originally approved by the Congress in the Federal Airport Act of 1946. I would like to say here to you gentlemen that we notice in the papers that Secretary Rothschild appeared before the committee in opposition to this bill and apparently in opposition to any further aid for airports than that provided in the budget which was $11 million. We are completely unable to understand the apparent opposition of the Commerce Department or the administration to a decent airport-aid program. We recall that Secretary Murray expressed the same opposition and under him the airport program was virtually abandoned. As a result of criticism from all over the Nation, Secretary Murray announced that he would evaluate the whole program and appointed quite a representative national committee. That committee, Mr. Chairman, came in and unanimously recommended that the Federal Government go back into grants in aid for municipal airports. Secretary Murray was not satisfied. He then set up another committee to study it still more; and after due time this committee likewise recommended unanimously that the Government go back to grants-in-aid for municipal airports. We feel that the Government, the administration let us say, has somewhat broken faith with the American cities. This program was gone into. I believe started in 1946. The American cities accepted it in good faith, and they made programs accordingly. In some cases cities issued bonds that were later unusable on account of the breakdown of this program. I have in mind particularly, I am informed, the case of Cincinnati, which city issued bonds containing the provision that they were to be matched with Federal funds. Federal funds became unavailable, and Cincinnati was unable to use those bonds. Senator MONRONEY. They relied on the 1946 act and the authorization of Congress of a 5-year program for $180 million a year? Mayor HARTSFIELD. Yes, sir; they relied on it and issued bonds; and I am told that other cities prepared to finance it, hurt themselves on account of this program being suddenly virtually abandoned. Incidentally, gentlemen, we are also unable to understand the lack of interest of the administration in this program in that the huge road program-one of the reasons for urging it has been the necessity for quick access for national defense and particularly the possibility of atomic damage. We know of no better way or quicker way to get around the country than aviation, and it would seem if they are honestly interested in transportation, that aviation should figure in their plans. Senator MONRONEY. As a matter of fact, would not every commercial airport that is brought up to specifications to take care of modern planes be just as valuable as a military airport; that you have to have extra airports because some of them are going to be knocked out? Mayor HARTSFIELD. Well, Senator, there can be no quicker way to move equipment and people around the country, which may be necessary in the next war, than airplanes. The following figures and chart-which I am submitting for the record as exhibit 1-show what maximum amount the Federal Government was authorized to provide on a 50-50 dollar matching basis between the years 1946 and 1951 and how far short of that amount have been the annual appropriations. (The above-mentioned document is as follows.) Mayor HARTSFIELD. As stated by Senator Monroney when S. 1855 was introduced, the civil airport situation may be compared to that of our public roads, where there has been recognition of the necessity for allowance of time for planning and financing prior to actual construction. The highway acts have consistently authorized funds to be obligated during the 2 fiscal years following the fiscal year next succeeding the year in which the authorization is granted. For example, the Highway Act of 1954 authorized the obligation of specific amounts for highways during the fiscal years 1956 and 1957. I call your attention on the chart to the light lines meaning what Congress authorized; you will notice in 1947 it started with $45 million, less than half of what was authorized. Senator MONRONEY. Was that not because at that time they said the plans had not been completed, the cities were not ready to go forward, they were going to start with a small amount until the cities got their plans ready? Mayor HARTSFIELD. Yes, a very modest way. Then in 1952, it got to $18 million; 1953, to $14 million; 1954, we got nothing. Senator MONRONEY. The budget recommended only $11 million for this year, but the House has raised that to $20 million. Mayor HARTSFIELD. The budget recommended $11 million, Mr. Chairman, and the House raised it to $20 million, and I am informed that there was quite a sentiment to raise it still more, and a hope that the Senate will raise it still more. The civil airport sponsors of the United States are ready to provide in fiscal 1956 a full $100 million in local funds to match a like amount of Federal funds on a 50-50 basis under the provisions of the Airport Act. Because of the time lost during this administration's airport program reevaluation study in fiscal 1954, we respectfully suggest that S. 1855 be amended to authorize the Secretary of Commerce to obligate $100 million for the first of the 4 fiscal years covered by the bill, making an offsetting reduction in the obligation authorized for the last of the 4 years. We ask this change because the situation is urgent and many of our municipalities have been hopefully planning and arranging the financing for a substantial airport program in 1956 and are now ready to act. A joint survey made by the American Association of Airport Executives, the Airport Operators Council, and the National Association of State Aviation Officials during the past 6 months has revealed that civil airport construction and improvements needed in the 48 States to meet the requirements of air-age transportation is approximately $440 million or nearly double the amount provided by S. 1855. The figures for each State, based on the survey report are presented for the record as exhibit II. |