[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 5 (Wednesday, January 22, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S640-S641]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BYRD:
  S. 182. A bill 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 a critically 
important measure to ensure that sufficient funds will be made 
available over the next six years to complete the Appalachian 
Development Highway System by the year 2003, some 38 years after the 
initial authorization of this vital 3,025-mile highway network.
  As Senators are aware, the funding authorizations for the Federal-Aid 
Highway program will expire at the end of fiscal year 1997. 
Consequently, one of the most important pieces of legislation we will 
take up during this congressional session will be the reauthorization 
of the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, or ISTEA. This 
legislation will provide new direction for our Federal highway and 
transit programs for the next six years. I commend the Majority Leader 
for recognizing the importance of this legislation in his remarks on 
the Senate Floor during the first day of this session, during which he 
cited his hope that we might turn to it prior to the Easter recess.
  Our colleagues in the other body have already completed several 
hearings on the reauthorization of ISTEA, and I understand that the 
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will begin its hearings 
shortly. As we approach the drafting of a new, comprehensive, Federal-
aid highway bill, I am introducing this bill today so that my 
colleagues have available to them my proposal to ensure that the 
Federal government finally completes its commitment to the Appalachian 
Development Highway System in all affected thirteen states.
  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. 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 . . . are the 
very basis of the Appalachian lag. Its 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.'' 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. 
These unfinished miles are spread throughout the 13 states that have 
counties within the statutorily designated boundaries of Appalachia. 
These states include Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, 
New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, 
Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
  Mr. President, the purpose of my legislation is to ensure that we 
expeditiously complete this vital highway network. Its completion is 
even more important today than it was 30 years ago, not only for the 
local economies of the Appalachian region but also for the entire 
nation. The citizens of Appalachia are required to drive through the 
existing, inadequate road system--dangerous, narrow roads which 
generally wind through the paths of river valleys and stream beds 
between mountains. These roads are, more often than not, two-lane roads 
that are squeezed into very limited rights-of-way. They are 
characterized by low travel speeds and long travel distances. They were 
often built to inadequate design standards and, thus, present very 
hazardous driving conditions.
  Just last year, the Federal Highway Administration published a report 
indicating that substandard road conditions are a factor in 30 percent 
of all fatal highway accidents. I am quite sure that the percentage is 
a great deal higher in the Appalachian region. [In my own state, the 
inadequate two-lane road that currently lies along the alignment of our 
largest uncompleted segment of the ADHS represents the second most 
dangerous road in the entire state.] The Federal Highway Administration 
has found that upgrading two-lane roads to four-lane divided highways 
has served to decrease fatal traffic accidents by 71 percent and that 
widening traffic lanes has served to reduce fatalities by 21 percent. 
These are precisely the kinds of road improvements that will be funded 
through the legislation which I am introducing today. And until this 
legislation is enacted, many citizens will die unnecessarily on 
inadequate, unsafe roads.
  While several of the thirteen Appalachian states have enjoyed 
significant economic expansion and job growth over the last three 
decades, each such state continues to have pockets of severe economic 
distress characterized by low academic achievement, chronic 
unemployment, and an inadequate tax base. There are still children in 
Appalachia who lack decent transportation routes to school. There are 
still pregnant mothers, elderly citizens, and others who lack timely 
road access to area hospitals. There are many people who cannot obtain 
sustainable well-paying jobs because of poor road access to major 
employment centers. These critical conditions affect not only the 
citizens of these local communities but also the economy of the entire 
nation. Instead of enjoying the full productive potential of all the 
citizens of Appalachia, our nation must bear the costs of Federal 
assistance that must be provided to those who cannot adequately care 
for themselves through no fault of their own--costs associated with 
unemployment benefits, health care, school lunch programs, etc.

  The Appalachian Regional Commission has conducted a number of studies 
and surveys which confirm the linkage between economic prosperity and 
the completion of segments of the Appalachian Highway System. These 
same studies also highlight the fact that it is almost impossible for 
communities still awaiting completion of their segments of these 
highways to attract businesses and investment opportunities to their 
areas, largely due to an inadequate transportation system, inhibiting 
their access to the national markets.
  The most rigorous of these studies was financed by the National 
Science Foundation and published just a year and a half ago. This study 
covered a twenty-year period and compared conditions in Appalachian 
counties versus similarly-situated counties outside the Appalachian 
region. When looking at conditions in the sixty-two rural Appalachian 
counties, the study revealed that the income levels of those counties 
with substantially complete Appalachian Development highways grew 80 
percent faster and that earnings grew 62 percent faster than did the 
counties without such highway access.
  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 in 
the thirteen-state region. 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. This contract authority would be 
distributed to the thirteen 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

[[Page S641]]

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.
  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 
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.
  Under this bill, states will still be required to provide the 
standard 20 percent matching share for Federal funds for the completion 
of these roads, 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. Similar to the manner in which Federal funds are 
currently administered for Appalachian highways, the funds provided 
under this bill will be administered by the Appalachian Regional 
Commission (ARC). The ARC, with the cooperation of the Federal Highway 
Administration, is currently updating its estimate for the cost to 
complete the system. This study is expected to be completed by May 1 of 
this year, and I anticipate that, when this bill is incorporated into 
this 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. In addition to having written to President Clinton 
several times in support of this legislative approach, I met with him 
personally in the Oval Office on December 16, 1996--last year. I have 
also had meetings on this subject with his OMB Director, Mr. Franklin 
Raines, and his Federal Highway Administrator and Transportation 
Secretary-designate, Mr. Rodney Slater. I am confident that the 
Administration will be supportive of my efforts to complete the 
construction of the ADHS as soon as possible.
  So, Mr. President, I urge all my colleagues to support this 
legislation. Our entire nation has benefited from the improvements 
brought about by the Appalachian Development Highway System. So, too, 
will we all benefit from its completion in the near future.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the text of the bill be 
printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the bill was ordered to be printed in the 
Record, as follows:

                                 S. 182

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

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Appalachian Development 
     Highway System Completion Act''.

     SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

       Congress finds that--
       (1) the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965 (40 
     U.S.C. App.) enacted into law a Federal commitment to the 
     completion of the Appalachian development highway system for 
     the purpose of expanding highway access to the Appalachian 
     region;
       (2) economic prosperity within the Appalachian region since 
     that time has been brought about by, and has centered around, 
     the availability of adequate highway access;
       (3) the rationale behind the completion of the Appalachian 
     development highway system is as sound today as it was in 
     1965, but while the Interstate System is nearly 100 percent 
     complete, the Appalachian development highway system is only 
     76 percent complete;
       (4) those areas in which the Appalachian development 
     highway system is not yet complete suffer from inadequate 
     road systems characterized by low travel speeds, long travel 
     distances, and unsafe conditions; and
       (5) there are unfinished miles of the Appalachian 
     development highway system in all 13 of the States with 
     counties in the statutorily-designated Appalachian region.

     SEC. 3. COMPLETION OF APPALACHIAN DEVELOPMENT HIGHWAY SYSTEM.

       (a) Authorization.--
       (1) In general.--Subject to subsection (d), there are 
     authorized to be appropriated out of the Highway Trust Fund 
     (other than the Mass Transit Account) for the period of 
     fiscal years 1998 through 2003 such sums as are necessary to 
     fund the Federal share of the total estimated cost of 
     completion of construction of the Appalachian development 
     highway system authorized by section 201 of the Appalachian 
     Regional Development Act of 1965 (40 U.S.C. App.), as 
     determined by the Secretary of Transportation.
       (2) Transfer and administration of funds.--The Secretary 
     shall transfer the funds made available by paragraph (1) to 
     the Appalachian Regional Commission, which shall be 
     responsible for the administration of the funds.
       (b) Federal Share.--The Federal share under this section 
     shall be 80 percent.
       (c) Apportionment to States.--In carrying out subsection 
     (a), the Secretary shall apportion the funds to the 13 States 
     in the Appalachian region in accordance with each State's 
     portion of the total estimated cost of completion.
       (d) Allocation Percentages.--One-sixth of the funds 
     allocated by subsection (a) for the construction shall be 
     available for obligation in each of fiscal years 1998 through 
     2003.
       (e) Delegation to States.--Subject to title 23, United 
     States Code, the Secretary shall delegate responsibility for 
     completion of construction of each segment of the Appalachian 
     development highway system under this section to the State in 
     which the segment is located, upon request of the State.
       (f) Advance Construction.--When a State that has been 
     delegated responsibility for construction of a segment under 
     subsection (c)--
       (1) has obligated all funds allocated under this section 
     for construction of the segment; and
       (2) proceeds to construct the segment without the aid of 
     Federal funds in accordance with all procedures and all 
     requirements applicable to the segment, except insofar as the 
     procedures and requirements limit the State to the 
     construction of segments with the aid of Federal funds 
     previously allocated to the State;

     the Secretary, upon approval of the application of a State, 
     shall pay to the State the Federal share of the cost of 
     construction of the segment at such time as additional funds 
     are allocated for the segment under subsection (d).
       (g) Contract Authority.--Funds authorized by this section 
     shall be available for obligation in the same manner as if 
     the funds were apportioned under chapter 1 of title 23, 
     United States Code, except that--
       (1) the Federal share of the cost of any construction under 
     this section shall be determined in accordance with 
     subsection (b); and
       (2) the funds shall remain available until expended.
       (h) Inapplicability of Obligation Limitations.--
     Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any obligation 
     limitation enacted for any of fiscal years 1998 through 2003 
     shall not apply to obligations authorized under this section.
       (i) Other State Funds.--Funds made available to a State 
     under this section shall not be considered in determining the 
     apportionments and locations that any State shall be entitled 
     to receive, under title 23, United States Code, and other 
     law, of amounts in the Highway Trust Fund.
                                 ______