2 1 Federal-aid highway funds for that State: Provided, That 2 the amount of such increase in the Federal share shall not 3 excced two-thirds of the State's share of the cost of such 4 project. 5 SEC. 2. The total amount of any increases in the Federal 6 share as are made pursuant to section 1 above, shall be repaid to the Federal Government by making deductions of sums 8 equal to the amounts so expended for projects on the Inter9 state System, Federal-aid primary system, Federal-aid sec10 ondary system, and the Federal-aid urban system in two 11 equal installments from amounts available to such State for 12 expenditure on such highways under any apportionment 13 heretofore or hereafter authorized to be appropriated therefor 14 for the fiscal years ending September 30, 1977, and Sep15 tember 30, 1978. 16 SEC. 3. Approval by the Secretary of Transportation of 17 any project on which the Federal share is increased under 18 provisions of this Act shall be deemed a contractual obliga19 tion of the Federal Government for the payment of such 20 increase in the Federal share. 21 SEC. 4. It is hereby declared to be the intent of Congress 22 that sums made available under section 1 shall be supple23 mentary to any prior apportionment of funds to the State for 3 1 expenditure on the Interstate System or any Federal-aid 2 system and is available for State matching of any Federal-aid 3 funds withheld from apportionment prior to January 31, 4 1975. 94TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3786 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES APRIL 14, 1975 Read twice and referred to the Committee on Public Works AN ACT To authorize the increase of the Federal share of certain projects under title 23, United States Code. 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 That, notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Fed4 eral share of any project approved by the Secretary of 5 Transportation under section 106 (a), and of any project for 6 which the United States becomes obligated to pay under 7 section 117, of title 23, United States Code, during the period S beginning February 12, 1975, and ending June 30, 1975 9 (both dates inclusive), shall be such percentage of the con10 struction cost as the State highway department requests, 11 up to and including 100 per centum. 2 1 SEC. 2. The total amount of such increases in the Federal 2 share as are made pursuant to the first section of this Act 3 for any State shall be repaid to the United States by such 4 State before January 1, 1977. Such repayments shall be de5 posited in the Highway Trust Fund. No project shall be 6 approved under section 106 or section 117 of title 23, United 7 States Code, for any project in any State which has failed to make its repayment in accordance with this section until 9 such repayment has been made. 10 SEC. 3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, 11 any money apportioned under section 104 (b) of title 23, 12 United States Code, for any one Federal-aid highway system 13 in a State (other than the Interstate System) may be used 14 during the period beginning February 12, 1975, and ending 15 June 30, 1975 (both dates inclusive), for any project in 16 that State on any Federal-aid highway system (other than 17 the Interstate System). The Secretary shall deduct from 18 moneys apportioned to a State under section 104 (b) of title 23, United States Code, after the date of enactment of this section for a Federal-aid highway system on which 21 money has been used under authority of the preceding sen22 tence, an amount equal to the money so used, and the deducted amount shall be repaid and credited to the last apportionment made for the system for which the money so used 19 20 23 24 25 was originally apportioned. Each deduction made under the 3 1 preceding sentence shall be at least 50 per centum of the 2 annual apportionment to which the deduction applies until 3 full repayment has been made. Passed the House of Representatives April 10, 1975. Attest: Senator BENTSEN. Governor Tiemann. Clerk. STATEMENT OF HON. NORBERT T. TIEMANN, ADMINISTRATOR, FEDERAL HIGHWAY ADMINISTRATION, ACCOMPANIED BY JOSEPH R. COUPAL, DEPUTY ADMINISTRATOR; LESTER P. LAMM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AND DAVID E. WELLS, CHIEF COUNSEL Mr. TIEMANN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. For the record I would like to submit the formal statement which I will not read because it is rather lengthy. I will spare you the agony of that. I have synopsized the lengthy version and I would like to make some comments based on the original testimony. [The statement appears at p. 30.] As was indicated in your comments and comments by other members of the committee, the President, in February, released $2 billion additional, making the total obligation level for fiscal year 1975, $6.6 billion, up from $4.6 billion. The basic reasons were the growing unemployment in this Nation. We agree as Senator Montoya said, each $1 billion generates approximately 125,000 on- and off-site jobs, as has been stated on other occasions. The time of the release, the States began to tell us they had matching problems. They did not have sufficient cash on hand to meet their share of the Federal-State effort. At the same time they were finding that they were utilizing most, or a lot of the apportionment in the various categories of highway programs. In some cases where a particular category had sufficient apportionment, they had no projects ready to go. During the past several weeks we have discussed this with several congressional committees and we again repeat here today with regard to the matching provisions, that we continue to oppose the principle of waiving State matching requirements. We do not believe that the States can really utilize much above the the $6.6 billion that has already been proposed. For evidence of that, our latest survey of the States indicates that only five States could take advantage of postponing any matching funds. The five States indicate they could utilize $176 million this fiscal year. Of that $176 million, one State indicated it could use $100 million. We are a little suspect of that figure. 54-039 O-75-3 |