[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 18, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6409-S6410]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BYRD:
  S. 1881. A bill to amend title 23, United States Code, to make 
available for obligation such sums as are necessary to pay the Federal 
share of completion of construction of the Appalachian Development 
Highway System, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Environment 
and Public Works.


       The Appalachian Development Highway System Completion Act

  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Appalachian 
Development Highway System Completion Act of 1997. This bill will 
ensure that adequate funds will be disbursed to complete the 
Appalachian Development Highway System by the year 2003, some 38 years 
after the Federal Government first committed itself to the completion 
of this critical highway network.
  We are quickly approaching the expiration of the funding 
authorizations contained in the Intermodal Surface Transportation 
Efficiency Act, or ISTEA as it is commonly referred to. Our colleagues 
in the other body have already begun hearings on the reauthorization of 
ISTEA, and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will begin 
efforts toward that end in the next several months. As we approach the 
drafting of a new comprehensive multiyear highway bill, I want to call 
the attention of my Senate colleagues to the proposal to ensure that 
the Federal Government finally fulfills its commitment to providing 
adequate highway access throughout the Appalachian region.
  The necessity to expand highway access to spur the development of the 
Appalachian region was first cited by the President's Appalachian 
Regional Commission of 1964, 32 years ago. The commission's report 
stated:

       Developmental activities in Appalachia cannot proceed until 
     the regional isolation has been overcome by a transportation 
     network which provides access to and from the rest of the 
     Nation and within the region itself. The remoteness and 
     isolation of the region lying directly adjacent to the 
     greatest concentration of people and wealth in the country 
     are the very bases of Appalachian life. Penetration by an 
     adequate transportation network is the first requisite of its 
     full participation in industrial America.

  One year later, the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965 
authorized several programs for the development of the region, the 
first of which called for the construction of a new highway 
network. According to the act, these highways ``will open up an area or 
areas with a developmental potential where commerce and communication 
have been inhibited by lack of adequate access.''

  Mr. President, subsequent amendments to the act defined the 3,025 
miles that comprise the Appalachian Development Highway System. 
Unfortunately, today we find that while the Interstate Highway System 
is virtually 100 percent complete, the Appalachian Development Highway 
System is only 76 percent complete. Of the 3,025 miles that comprise 
the Appalachian system, roughly 725 miles remain unfinished more than 
30 years after the system was promised.
  These unfinished miles, spread throughout the 13 States that have 
counties within the statutorily designated boundaries of Appalachia, 
await completion. Those States include Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, 
Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, 
South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. All of West 
Virginia is within Appalachia. West Virginia is the only State that is 
wholly within Appalachia.
  While the completion of the Interstate Highway System did play a role 
in the development of certain parts of Appalachia, the interstate 
system largely bypassed the Appalachian region due to the extremely 
high costs associated with building roads through Appalachia's rugged 
topography. As a result, the construction of the interstates had the 
detrimental effect of drawing passengers and freight, and their 
accompanying economic benefits, away from the Appalachian region. This 
left the Appalachian region with a transportation infrastructure of 
dangerous, narrow, winding roads that followed the paths of river 
valleys and streambeds between mountains. These roads are, more often 
than not, two-lane roads that are required to be squeezed into very 
limited rights-of-way. They are characterized by low travel speeds and 
long travel distances due to the winding roadway pattern. They were 
often built to inadequate design standards and, therefore, present very 
hazardous driving conditions.
  For those areas where the Appalachian Development Highway System has 
been completed, we have seen stunning economic successes. The 
Appalachian Regional Commission has completed surveys indicating that 
of the hundreds of thousands of jobs that have been created in the 
Appalachian region over recent decades, over 80 percent of these jobs 
have been located along either the Appalachian highway system or the 
Interstate Highway System.
  We have seen this in West Virginia as we have seen it in each of the 
other 12 States that comprise the Appalachian region. Unfortunately, we 
have also seen that in those areas where the Appalachian Development 
Highway System has not been completed, it is almost impossible for 
communities to compete for large employers due to poor access to 
national markets.
  Mr. President, the rationale behind the completion of the Appalachian 
highway system is no less sound today than it was 32 years ago--in 
1964. Unfortunately, there are still children in Appalachia who lack 
decent transportation routes to schools. There are still pregnant 
women, elderly citizens, and others who lack timely road access to area 
hospitals. There are thousands of people who certainly find it very 
difficult to obtain sustainable, well-paying jobs because of poor road 
access to the major employment centers.
  Mr. President, the people of Appalachia have waited long enough for 
the Federal Government to fulfill its commitment to the Appalachian 
region. The bill I am introducing today will ensure that sufficient 
funds are set aside in the next major highway bill to complete the 
remaining 24 percent of the Appalachian Development Highway System.

  This bill takes a different approach from that of the prior 
authorization acts for the Appalachian highway system. The bill calls 
for direct contract authority to be made available from the highway 
trust fund to be distributed to the States of the Appalachian region 
solely for the purpose of completing the 725 unfinished miles of the 
Appalachian Development Highway System.
  One of the primary reasons why completion of the Appalachian highway 
system has lagged behind that of the Interstate Highway System is 
because the interstate system has benefited from the direct 
availability of highway trust funds, while the Appalachian Development 
Highway System has been required to be financed largely through 
incremental annual appropriations of general funds.
  Now, Mr. President, the Appalachian Development Highway System is no 
less deserving of highway trust funds than any other major arterial 
road system. The 725 miles of the Appalachian Development Highway 
System that await completion represent just 1.6 percent of the size of 
our completed Interstate Highway System. They represent less than one-
half of 1 percent of the size of the National Highway System, just 
designated in law in 1995. It is certainly high time that the funding 
mechanism for the Appalachian Development Highway System be put on a 
par with those of other highway systems of national significance that 
are customarily funded through direct contract authority from the trust 
fund.
  The bill I introduce today also makes clear that funds provided to 
the Appalachian States for the completion of the Appalachian 
Development Highway System will be provided in addition to the funds 
that those States will receive from the Federal aid highway program for 
their customary purposes. These States should not be required to choose 
between the maintenance of their interstate and other Federal highways 
and the completion of the Appalachian system. It would not be fair to 
the

[[Page S6410]]

States of the Appalachian region to give with the one hand and take 
away with the other.
  Under this bill, States will still be required to provide the 
standard 20 percent matching share for Federal funds for the completion 
of these highways, as is the case for all major Federal aid highway 
programs. The bill authorizes the Secretary to distribute such sums as 
are necessary for the completion of the Appalachian Development Highway 
System.
  The Appalachian Regional Commission, with the cooperation of the 
Federal Highway Administration, is currently updating its estimate for 
the cost to complete the system. I anticipate that when this bill is 
incorporated into next year's highway legislation, it will identify and 
authorize the appropriate dollar figure that results from this ongoing 
study.
  I should point out, Mr. President, that the administration shares my 
goal for the completion of the Appalachian Development Highway System 
in the near term. I recently wrote to the President regarding my 
concern in this area.
  OMB Director, Alice Rivlin, responding for the President, stated that 
it is the administration's goal to complete the construction of the 
system by the year 2005. In response to my questions during a recent 
Transportation Appropriations Subcommittee hearing, Secretary Pena also 
signaled his support and cooperation.
  Therefore, I urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation. 
Our entire Nation has benefited from the improvements brought about by 
the Appalachian Development Highway System and so, too, will we all 
benefit from its completion in the near future.
                                 ______