We have gotten them out of the mud, but in getting them out of the mud, we neglected the primary system where we got the money with which to build these other roads, and we are attempting to step up very rapidly the improvement of that system, and we can do it. We are already bottlenecked. We are just fortunate that the local people do not realize it as much as I do. Senator THURMOND. Is it your thinking, if this Interstate System is built, that the States in cooperation with the Federal Government should select the routes of these new highways? Mr. MCMILLAN. Certainly I think that is true in the selection of any roads. Even in the secondary roads, we saw the wisdom of asking the county delegations to cooperate with us, because they knew more about this local condition than I did or any of the engineers with me, and we neded their support and cooperation. I think the Federal Government or the Bureau of Public Roads needs our assistance and advice in the selection of interstate roads in South Carolina as much as we needed the advice of the local people. Senator THURMOND. Considering the urgent need for an Interstate Highway System, as has been described, is it your recommendation that the Congress not delay and proceed at this session to enact legislation to begin construction of such a system? Mr. MCMILLAN. I certainly would recommend that they go ahead with it, but not to the extent of neglecting the other main roads. I think they must go along together. The public demands it. We work for the public, and without doing that, we would find ourselves in a very, very bad position. Senator THURMOND. I want to thank you very much, Chief McMillan, for your fine statement, which has been very favorably received before this committee. Mr. MCMILLAN. Thank you, sir. Senator THURMOND. Senator Kuchel. Senator KUCHEL. I have no questions, but I join with your own Senator, Mr. McMillan, in congratulating you on your presentation here today. Senator SYMINGTON. Senator Neuberger. Senator NEUBERGER. No, Mr. Chairman. I would just like to say though that I thank Mr. McMillan for his fine presentation, and my State is similar to South Carolina in that it is very dependent on agricultural economy. I agree with you that too much stress on the Interstate System will result in the main sufferers being our rural people, and there is just going to be so much to be spent on roads, and if the vast preponderance is spent on the Interstate System, which is all limited access, that the people in remote rural areas are going to have a difficult time getting into town for the various purposes. I think that is a very serious thing in this administration proposal, that it is going to be at the expense of the rural agricultural States like your State and my State. And, I want to thank you very much for your presentation. Senator SYMINGTON. Mr. McMillan, what is the reaction among the people in the small towns with regard to the Interstate System which often bypasses the towns? Mr. MCMILLAN. We have a big selling problem. We have that trouble right in our laps now. We have to spend much more time winning public support among those people and explaining just what it is for, why it is, rather than on the drafting board drawing and planning roads. We I find that in my case more so than anyone else in our State. have got to secure that public support. If we do not, we are stalled. We are stalled even though the Federal Government would furnish the money. Senator SYMINGTON. Would you say that there are many more people in your State today who are opposed to the Interstate System than who are for it? Mr. MCMILLAN. No, sir; I think they do not understand much about it; and unless we get them better informed, we will find ourselves stopped by the people by the time we got half through. Senator SYMINGTON. In other words, a selling job has to be done to put this over, is that it? Mr. MOMILLAN. Yes, sir. Senator SYMINGTON. Again I want to thank you very much for coming before the committee, and we appreciate it. Tomorrow, Tuesday, March 29, Attorney General Herbert Brownell and Commissioner C. D. Curtis of the Bureau of Public Roads will come before the committee. If there is no further business, the committee will stand adjourned. (Thereupon, at 11:35 a. m., the committee was adjourned to reconvene Tuesday, March 29, 1955, at 10 a. m., at the same place.) NATIONAL HIGHWAY PROGRAM TUESDAY, MARCH 29, 1955 UNITED STATES SENATE, The subcommittee met at 10:10 a. m., in room 412, Senate Office Building, Senator Albert Gore (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Chavez, Gore (presiding), McNamara, Case, and Bush. Senator GORE. The committee will come to order. This morning, in addition to the bills which we have been considering heretofore, the committee has before it a bill introduced yesterday by our distinguished colleague, the Senator from South Dakota, Senate bill 1573. (The above-mentioned document is as follows:) [S. 1573, 84th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To provide a ten-year program of Federal-aid highway authorization; to establish a corporation to acquire rights-of-way required for the completion of the national system of interstate highways; and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, TITLE I-INCREASED FEDERAL-AID HIGHWAY AUTHORIZATIONS TEN-YEAR FEDERAL-AID PRIMARY AND SECONDARY HIGHWAY AUTHORIZATIONS SECTION 1. (a) For the purpose of carrying out the provisions of the FederalAid Road Act, approved July 11, 1916 (39 Stat. 355), and all Acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto, there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for each of the ten fiscal years, beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1957, the sum of $810,000,000. (b) The sum authorized by subsection (a) to be appropriated for each of such fiscal years shall be available for expenditure as follows: (1) $360,000,000 for projects on the Federal-aid primary highway system; such amount to be in addition to the amounts authorized in section 2 (a) for appropriation to the interstate system, a portion of the primary system. (2) $360,000,000 for projects on the Federal-aid secondary system. (3) $90,000,000 for projects on the Federal-aid primary highway system in urban areas and for projects on approved extension of the Federal-aid secondary system within urban areas; such amount to be in addition to the $270,000,000 authorized in section 2 (e) for appropriation to the urban connections and access roads in connection with the national system of interstate highways. (c) The sums authorized to be appropriated by this section for each fiscal year, respectively, shall be apportioned among the several States in the manner now provided by law and in accordance with the formulas set forth in section 4 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944, approved December 20, 1944 (58 Stat. 838). (d) Any sums apportioned to any State under the provisions of this section shall be available for expenditure in that State for two years after the close of the fiscal year for which such sums are authorized to be appropriated, and any portions of sums so apportioned remaining unexpended at the end of such period shall lapse. For the purposes of this subsection any sums apportioned to a State shall be deemed to have been expended, if the State has entered into a formal agreement with the Secretary of Commerce for the expenditure of such sums on specific highway projects. (e) In the case of any sums apportioned to any State for projects on the Federal-aid secondary highway system, the Secretary of Commerce may, upon the request of any State, discharge his responsibility relative to the plans, specifications, estimates, surveys, contract awards, design, inspection, and construction of such secondary road projects by his receiving and approving a certified statement by the State highway department setting forth that the plans, design, and construction for such projects are in accordance with the standards and procedures of such State applicable to projects in this category approved by him; except that approval shall not be given unless such standards and procedures are in accordance with the objectives set forth in section 1 (b) of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1950. Nothing contained in this subsection shall be construed to relieve any State of its obligation now provided by law relative to maintenance, nor to relieve the Secretary of Commerce of his obligations with respect to the selection of the secondary system or the location of projects thereon, to make a final inspection after construction of each project, and to require an adequate showing of the estimated and actual cost of construction of each project. (f) Not more than 20 per centum of the amount apportioned to each State from the funds referred to in paragraphs (1), (2), or (3) of subsection (b) may be transferred from apportionment under any such paragraph to apportionment under either of the other of such paragraphs, if the transfer is requested by the State highway department and is approved by the Governor of such State and the Secretary of Commerce as being in the public interest. The total of such transfers shall not increase the original apportionment under any such paragraph by more than 20 per centum. Nothing in this subsection shall be deemed to alter or impair the authority contained in the last proviso to subparagraph (b) of section 3 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944. TEN-YEAR AUTHORIZATIONS FOR NATIONAL SYSTEM OF INTERSTATE HIGHWAYS SEC. 2. (a) For the purpose of expediting the construction, reconstruction, and improvement of the national system of interstate highways (including necessary bridges and tunnels and extensions through urban areas), designated in accordance with the provisions of section 7 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 (58 Stat. 838), there is hereby authorized to be appropriated for each of the ten fiscal years, beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1957, the sum of $900,000,000. (b) (1) The sum authorized to be appropriated by subsection (a) for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1957, and the four succeeding fiscal years, shall be apportioned among the several States in the following manner: (A) One-half in the ratio which the population of each State bears to the total population of all the States, as shown by the latest available Federal census; except that no State shall receive less than three-fourths of 1 per centum of the sum so apportioned. (B) One-half in the manner now provided by law for apportionment of funds for the Federal-aid primary system. (2) The sum authorized to be appropriated by subsection (a) for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1962, and each of the four succeeding fiscal years, shall be apportioned among the several States in accordance with the ratio which the cost of completing the uncompleted portion of the national system of interstate highways in such State bears to the cost of completing the uncompleted portion of the entire national system of interstate highways. (c) The Federal share payable on account of any project on the national system of interstate highways provided for by funds made available under the provisions of this section shall be increased to 90 per centum of the total cost thereof, plus a percentage of the remaining 10 per centum of such cost in any State containing unappropriated and unreserved public lands and nontaxable Indian lands, individual and tribal, exceeding 5 per centum of the total area of all lands therein, equal to the percentage that the area of such lands in such State is of its total area. |