with respect to the creation of employment. Accordingly, we are recommending that the Administrator of the Area Redevelopment Administration devise a reporting system which can be used consistently to provide meaningful cumulative information on actual onsite man-months of work created by accelerated public works projects.

We are also recommending that the Administrator of the Area Redevelopment Administration take steps to improve the reliability of the information reported in the directories of approved accelerated public works projects by periodically verifying information reported and evaluating procedures used to obtain such information. We are also recommending that the Commissioner, Community Facilities Administration, take steps to provide that procedures followed by that agency result in accurate reporting on its portion of the program. The Administrator has informed us that the Area Redevelopment Administration is giving serious consideration to our recommendation.

Copies of this report are being sent to the President of the United States, the Secretary of Commerce, and the Administrator, Housing and Home Finance Agency.

Mr. CRAMER. That is all I have.
Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Baldwin?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL, Comptroller General of the United States.

Mr. BALDWIN. I have just one question on one point.

General Prentiss, under this section 201 dealing with highways, as Mr. Cramer has pointed out, there are two types of highways authorized, 2,350 miles of so-called development highways which would be comparable, apparently, to State primary routes and then 500 miles of what it defines as local access roads and the bill defines them by stating that they will serve specific recreational, residential, industrial, or other like facilities or will facilitate a school consolidation program.

Since there are 10 States involved, 500 miles divided by 10 States would mean an average of 50 miles per State. Although our chairman mentioned that this might facilitate consolidation I do not think 50 miles of roads per State are going to make it possible for many districts to unify.

The problem that bothers me most about this particular phase of the bill is the mention that it will serve specific recreational facilities as an example.

Now our Federal-aid program to highways on the whole has been fairly free of criticism, of giving particular benefits to people in the way of those to be served by a road. That is because we have been providing aid to the major arteries, interstate arteries, State primary routes, well-recognized roads serving areas of large groups of people. If somebody could build individually a ski lodge and then convince local authorities to build a road up to his ski lodge rather than to somebody else's ski lodge this is favoritism to a particular individual. Yet this makes it possible when it says it will serve specific recreational facilities.

I personally have great concern about this particular part of the bill. I have concern about the principle of the bill limiting it to the 10 States as compared to the rest of them, but even on a nationwide scale I would have great concern about this definition or even this inclusion of the sentence "local access roads."

Now in your opinion, if we are to enact this exactly as it is written, how can we be sure that somebody with a lot of pull within the State might get a good portion of the 50 miles allotted to that State to build a road just up to the resort he is building for his own profit?

General PRENTISS. I have no way to answer that, Congressman Baldwin. I presume that the location of these highways as part of this overall program, since it comes under the Secretary of Commerce to be administered in accordance with the way the Federal-aid highway program is administered, that the location and the type of road to be built will be proposed and suggested by the State highway departments and referred to the Bureau of Public Roads for top level approval. But I am not certain.

Mr. BALDWIN. That is the order of procedure, that is true. But even on the local level you could go through the regulations of a county and find all the things that have to be met but you and I know when it gets down to the county level you find a lot of these things occurring, somebody with a lot of pull in the county courthouse gets a road just to serve him personally.

This is why this particular category of local access roads bothers me a great deal. I personally think even if we agree on the principle of the bill we do much better to stick to the basic idea of development highways that serve an area or a group to be sure that the Federal Government does not get down to serving specific individuals and making a choice between them.

That is all, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. CRAMER. May I ask one more question?

Mr. DAVIS. Mr. Cramer.

Mr. CRAMER. In the administrative setup of this legislation as it relates to highway construction, we have all been very pleased with the partnership approach of the State and Federal Government under the present system but this sets up a new procedure with the Appalachian Commission-one Federal member and the Governor or his designee from each State. The Federal Government has absolute veto power over any plans, including plans for highways.

Secondly, when it comes to financing, assuming they want credit financing through the Corporation, the Federal Government completely controls the Federal Financing Corporation through an Administrator.

Does that not somewhat conflict with the basic partnership concept which has so effectively worked in the past in other highway programs? Are we setting a precedent that we need to be concerned about?

General PRENTISS. I am not sufficiently familiar to answer your question, I am sorry, Congressman. I think that the partnership relationship will still exist. I think that it specifies in here that assistance will be provided in accordance with the provisions of title 23 of the United States Code that are applicable to Federal-aid primary highways. I think after the top-level Appalachian Committee makes some decisions that the actual operation will be and will follow the procedure for the Federal-aid primary highways.

Mr. CRAMER. I wish I were equally convinced but if you read section 303 on page 24 of the act itself, the Secretary of Commerce is authorized to delegate his functions under this act to the extent he deems appropriate to the Administrator of the Appalachian Corporation. That is the Financing Corporation, appointed pursuant to section 402.

Now he can delegate all his authority to the Financing Corporation. Then I also call to your attention page 13, line 17:

Assistance under this section shall be extended only pursuant to and in accordance with such recommendations of the Commission as are approved by the Secretary.

So the Commission makes the initial finding. I wish you could give that some consideration.

That is all, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. DAVIS. The Chair would like to announce that there will be no hearings of the subcommittee tomorrow. We will resume on Tuesday. Insofar as it is within the control of the Chair we will try to conclude these hearings in 4 days. I would like to say also, I am sure it meets with the approval of the subcommittee, that I will ask Mr. Rex Whitton, the road administrator, to appear as a witness.

I should also like to state at this point that it was testified a day or two ago that the administration was not pressing for expansion of the accelerated public works program. That has been a question in my mind for some time as to whether or not there would be a pressing for expansion of that program.

Thank you, General Prentiss.

I am sure that the members of the subcommittee will be delighted to be able to go back to our offices and do some other work. General PRENTISS. Thank you, sir.

(Whereupon, at 11:40 a.m., the ad hoc subcommittee recessed, to reconvene at 10 a.m., Tuesday, June 9, 1964.)

APPALACHIAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 1964

TUESDAY, JUNE 9, 1964

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AD HOC SUBCOMMITTEE
ON APPALACHIAN REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT
OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC WORKS,

Washington, D.C. in room

The ad hoc subcommittee met at 10 a.m., pursuant to recess, 1302, Longworth Building, Hon. Clifford Davis (chairman of the ad hoc subcommittee) presiding.

Mr. DAVIS. The subcommittee will be in order.

We resume our hearings on H.R. 11065 and H.R. 11066. Our first witness this morning is Mr. Robert F. Mattern, president of the Appalachian Thruway Association, Altoona, Pa.

Our esteemed friend, John Kunkel, of Pennsylvania, who is a member of the full Committee on Public Works in the House, is present. I have asked Congressman Kunkel if he will be so kind as to introduce Mr. Mattern.

Mr. Mattern, if you will come around and take this chair, Congressman Kunkel will introduce you.

Mr. KUNKEL. Mr. Chairman, the proposed Appalachian Thruway runs a little bit west of my district. It runs through the district of Congressman Whalley. As you know, Congressman Whalley is here with us this morning. They would like to present their case. Mr. Robert F. Mattern is the president of the Appalachian Thruway Association which has been active and which has some interesting material to present to the committee and I would like to introduce him at this time.

Mr. DAVIS. Thank you, Congressman Kunkel. And we are glad to have you before the committee this morning, Mr. Mattern. I understand your formal statement has not yet reached the committee. That is quite all right. So, if you have a written statement you may read it or if you prefer, you may strike the highlights and we will include the full statement that you have in the record at this point. You may proceed in your own way.

STATEMENT OF ROBERT F. MATTERN, PRESIDENT, APPALACHIAN THRUWAY ASSOCIATION, ALTOONA, PA.

Mr. MATTERN. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much and thank you, Congressman Kunkel, for the introduction. I certainly apologize to the committee for not having the prepared statement ready for you to have at this moment. It seems that we could not quite depend on the transportation between Pennsylvania and Washington for the delivery of that testimony in time. It will be here we expect probably within the hour. We will see to it that it gets into your hands.