[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1960 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1960

To exempt airports in economically depressed communities from matching 
        grant obligations under the Airport Improvement Program.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 25, 2003

  Mrs. Boxer introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
   referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To exempt airports in economically depressed communities from matching 
        grant obligations under the Airport Improvement Program.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. INCREASED UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT SHARE OF AIRPORT 
              IMPROVEMENT PROGRAM PROJECT COSTS.

    Section 47109 of title 49, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a), by striking ``subsection (b)'' and 
        inserting ``subsections (b) and (d)''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(d) Special Rule for Economically Depressed Communities.--
            ``(1) In general.--The United States Government's share of 
        allowable project costs is 100 percent for a project at an 
        airport that is located in a community that, at the time a 
        project grant application is submitted under section 47105 of 
        this title, is an economically depressed community.
            ``(2) Economically depressed community defined.--For 
        purposes of this section, a community is an economically 
        depressed community if it has--
                    ``(A) an unemployment rate that is, for the most 
                recent 24-month period for which data are available, at 
                least 1 percent greater than the national average 
                unemployment rate;
                    ``(B) per capita income that is, for the most 
                recent period for which data are available, 80 percent 
                or less of the national average per capita income; or
                    ``(C) a special need, as determined by the 
                Secretary of Transportation, arising from actual or 
                threatened severe unemployment or economic adjustment 
                problems resulting from severe short-term or long-term 
                changes in economic conditions such as--
                            ``(i) substantial outmigration or 
                        population loss;
                            ``(ii) underemployment;
                            ``(iii) military base closures or 
                        realignments, defense contractor reductions-in-
                        force, or Department of Energy defense-related 
                        funding reductions;
                            ``(iv) natural or other major disasters or 
                        emergencies;
                            ``(v) extraordinary depletion of natural 
                        resources;
                            ``(vi) closure or restructuring of 
                        industrial firms essential to area economies; 
                        and
                            ``(vii) destructive impacts of foreign 
                        trade.''.
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