[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 23 (Thursday, March 3, 2005)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2023-S2025]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. BYRD:
  S. 514. A bill to complete construction of the 13-State Appalachian 
development highway system, and for other purposes; to the Committee on 
Environment and Public Works.
  Mr. BYRD. Mr. President, today I am, again, introducing legislation 
designed to fulfill an important promise made by the Federal Government 
to the people of my State and my region some 40 years ago. That 
promise, building and completing a network of highways through the 
Appalachian region is known today as the Appalachian Development 
Highway System or ADHS. I look forward to working with my fellow 
Senators to have my legislation included in the reauthorization of the 
Federal-aid Highway Program, a program at the core of Federal 
infrastructure investment.
  Over the course of the 108th Congress, we failed to reauthorize this 
program. That legislation should have been enacted into law prior to 
beginning fiscal year 2004. We are now more than one third of the way 
through fiscal year 2005 and the 109th Congress must initiate new bills 
to get the job done. I know I speak for many Senators in stressing the 
need to complete this job during this session of Congress. We must 
authorize a bill that addresses our deteriorating highways and bridges, 
and is not squeezed by the artificial funding ceiling that the 
administration wants.
  The administration's own Conditions and Performance Report again 
reminds us that a great deal more investment in our infrastructure is 
essential to prevent the further deterioration of our nation's highways 
and bridges.
  At a September 30, 2002 hearing of the Senate Environment and Public 
Works Committee, Administrator Mary Peters testified that, despite the 
historic funding increase accomplished through TEA-21, congestion on 
our roads continues to worsen. Funding for highway infrastructure by 
all levels of government will have to increase by more than 65 percent 
or $42.2 billion per year to actually improve the condition of our 
Nation's highways. A funding increase of more than 17 percent or $11.3 
billion is necessary to simply maintain the current poor condition of 
our highway network, where more than one in four of our Nation's 
bridges are classified as deficient.
  At the end of 2002, I worked doggedly to ensure that the Senate 
prevailed in the conference with the House on the omnibus 
appropriations bill for fiscal year 2003 and rejected every penny of 
the $8.6 billion cut in highway funding proposed by President Bush. In 
2003, I was pleased to join with Senators Bond and Reid, the respective 
chairman and ranking member of the Surface Transportation Subcommittee 
in sponsoring a bipartisan amendment to the budget resolution for 
fiscal year 2004 boosting funding for our Federal-aid Highway Program 
by several billion dollars. That amendment commanded 79 votes on the 
Senate floor.
  Mr. President, I am one of only two members still serving in the 
Congress that had the privilege of casting a vote in favor of 
establishing the Interstate Highway System. I did so as a Member of the 
other body back in 1956. Of equal if not greater importance to the 
transportation needs of my region, however,

[[Page S2024]]

were the findings of the first Appalachian Regional Commission in 1964, 
that while the Interstate Highway System was slated to provide historic 
economic benefits to most of our Nation, the system would bypass the 
Appalachian region because of the extremely high costs of building 
highways through Appalachia's rugged topography.

  In 1965, the Congress adopted the Appalachian Regional Development 
Act that promised a network of modern highways to connect the 
Appalachian region to the rest of the Nation's highway network and, 
even more importantly, the rest of the Nation's economy. Absent the 
Appalachian Development Highway System, my region of the country would 
have been left with a transportation network of dangerous, narrow, 
winding roads following the path of river valleys and stream beds 
between mountains.
  One of the observations contained in Administrator Peters' testimony 
back in September of 2002 that especially caught my eye was her 
statement that ``the condition of higher-order roads, such as 
interstates, has improved considerably since 1993 while the condition 
on many lower-order roads has deteriorated.'' The pattern of road 
conditions mirrors the distribution of wealth in our country. The rich 
are getting richer while the poor get poorer. That observation becomes 
especially pertinent when one contemplates the challenge of completing 
the Appalachian Development Highway System.
  We have virtually completed the construction of the Interstate 
Highway System and have moved on to other important transportation 
goals. However, the people of my region still wait for the Federal 
Government to make good on its 40-year-old promise to complete the 
ADHS. The system is still less than 80 percent complete. My home State 
of West Virginia is below the average for the entire Appalachian region 
with only 72 percent of its mileage complete and open to traffic.
  Unfortunately, there are still children in Appalachia who lack decent 
transportation routes to school; and there are still pregnant mothers, 
elderly citizens and others who lack road access to area hospitals. 
There are thousands upon thousands of people who cannot obtain 
sustainable well-paying jobs because of poor roads. The entire status 
of the Appalachian Development Highway System is laid out in great 
detail in the Cost to Complete Report for 2002 completed by the 
Appalachian Regional Commission. This is the most comprehensive report 
on the status of the Appalachian Development Highway System to date, 
and I commend the staff of the Appalachian Regional Commission for 
their hard work on this report. The last report was completed in 1997 
just prior to Congressional consideration of TEA-21.
  The enactment of TEA-21 signaled a new day in the advancement of the 
Appalachian Development Highway System. Through the work of the 
Committee on Environment and Public Works, the House Transportation and 
Infrastructure Committee, and the administration, we took a great leap 
forward by authorizing direct contract authority from the Highway Trust 
Fund to the States for the construction of the ADHS. Up until that 
point, funding for the Appalachian Development Highway System was 
limited to uncertain general fund appropriations. By providing the 
States of the Appalachian region with a predictable source of funds to 
complete ADHS segments, TEA-21 reinvigorated efforts to keep the 
promise made to the people of the Appalachian region.

  This initiative has been a great success. States are making progress 
toward the completion of the system. Since the last Cost to Complete 
Report, 183 miles of the system have been opened to traffic and, the 
cost to complete the system has been reduced by roughly $1.7 billion in 
Federal funds.
  I am pleased to report that the 13 States, to date, have succeeded in 
obligating just under 90 percent of the obligation authority that has 
been granted to them for the completion of the system. A 90-percent 
obligation rate compares quite favorably to some of the other 
transportation programs through which the States were granted multiple 
years to obligate their funds.
  According to the ARC's Cost to Complete Report, the remaining Federal 
funds needed to complete the ADHS as the system was defined at the time 
that report was completed are now estimated to be $4.467 billion. When 
adjusted for inflation over the life of the next highway bill, using 
the standard inflation calculation for highway projects, a total of 
$5.04 billion will need to be authorized to complete the system. That 
is a lot of money and I believe that figure deserves some explanation.
  The considerable cost of completing the last 20 percent of the ADHS 
is explained by the fact that the easiest segments of the system to 
build have already been built. Much of the costs associated with 
completing the most difficult unfinished segments are driven by the 
requirement to comply with other Federal laws, especially the laws 
requiring environmental mitigation measures when building new highways 
through rural areas. While the $5.04 billion figure may seem large to 
some of my colleagues, I would remind them that the last highway bill 
authorized more than $218 billion in Federal infrastructure investment 
over 6 years. It is my sincere hope and expectation that the next 
highway bill will authorize an even greater amount.
  Of critical importance to this debate is the fact that the unfinished 
segments of the ADHS represent some of most dangerous and most 
deficient roadways in our entire Nation. Often lost in our debate over 
the necessity to invest in our highways is the issue of safety. The 
Federal Highway Administration has published reports indicating that 
substandard road conditions are a factor in 30 percent of all fatal 
highway accidents. I am quite certain that the percentage is a great 
deal higher in the Applachian region.
  The Federal Highway Administration found that upgrading two-lane 
roads to four-lane divided highways decreased fatal car accidents by 71 
percent and that the widening of traffic lanes has served to reduce 
fatalities by 21 percent. These are precisely the kind of road 
improvements that are funded through the ADHS. In my state, the largest 
segment of unfinished Appalachian Highway, if completed, will replace 
the second most dangerous segment of roadway in West Virginia. So, even 
those who would question the wisdom of completing these highways in the 
name of economic development should take a hard look at the fact that 
the people of rural Appalachia are taking their lives in their hands 
every day as they drive on dangerous roads. It is time for this 
Congress, in concert with the administration, to take the last great 
leap forward and authorize sufficient contract authority to finally 
complete the Appalachian Development Highway System. If we enact 
another six-year highway bill with sufficient funds to complete the 
system, we will finally pay the full costs of the ADHS some 45 years 
after the system was first promised to the people of my region. The 
legislation I am introducing today, the ``Appalachian Development 
Highway System Completion Act,'' will provide sufficient contract 
authority to complete the system. Importantly, it will guarantee that 
the states of the Appalachian Region do not pay a penalty, either 
through the distribution of minimum allocation funds, or the 
distribution of obligation limitation, for receiving sufficient funds 
to complete the Appalachian system.
  I am very pleased that this administration has taken on the goal of 
completing the ADHS. In her letter accompanying the Cost to Complete 
Report, Administrator Peters said ``the completion of the ADHS is an 
important part of the mission of the Federal Highway Administration. We 
consider the accessibility, mobility and economic stimulation provided 
by the ADHS to be entirely consistent with the goals of our agency.'' 
Ms. Peters further stated that the Appalachian Regional Commission's 
2002 Cost to Complete Report, ``provides a sound basis for apportioning 
future funding to complete the system.'' I thank Mary Peters and the 
entire Federal Highway Administration for their leadership on this 
issue and I look forward to working with Ms. Peters and her agency to 
ensure that this commitment is borne out in the transportation 
reauthorization legislation that is developed by the Congress.
  Completion of a new highway bill will be an enormous task for this 
Congress--one that is now more than 2

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years overdue. As I look back over the many years of my public career, 
one of the accomplishments of which I am most proud was my amendment 
providing an additional $8 billion in funding to break the logjam 
during the debate on the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency 
Act in 1991. Another was my sponsorship of the Byrd-Gramm-Baucus-Warner 
Amendment during the Senate debate of TEA-21 in 1998. That effort 
resulted in some $26 billion in funding being added to that bill and 
put us on a path to historic funding increases for our nation's highway 
infrastructure. I look forward again to working with my fellow Senators 
on completion of a bill that makes the necessary investments in our 
nation's highways, not just in the Appalachian region but across our 
entire country.
                                 ______