of clear and sufficient need. There does not appear to be a clear and sufficient need in this case. H.R. 10318 would permit existing agencies to conduct all planning, administration, and coordination and thereby eliminate the need for a special public works coordinating agency. We believe that acceleration can best be carried out by those agencies which are presently engaged in coordinating public works and capital improvements and other programs on behalf of the President. Most of the direct capital expenditures of the Federal Aviation Agency are for the procurement and installation of air traffic control and air navigation facilities required for safety and efficiency in the use of the Nation's airspace. It is now expected that as much as $1 billion could be advantageously used by the Agency over the next 5 years in the modernization of such facilities. Other direct capital expenditures will be made for improvements in and additions to our airports in the National Capital area and for the construction of laboratories and test facilities at our National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center at Atlantic City. The Federal Aviation Agency's only grant-in-aid program assists State and local public authorities in the construction and improvement of airports. The Federal assistance level is now $75 million per year. Estimated national public airport requirements for the next years total in excess of $1.1 billion. 5 However, both the direct construction and grant-in-aid programs of the Agency entail substantial advance planning and the procurement of highly specialized equipment. As a result, the FAA has only about $72 million in projects not presently funded which it could initiate and complete within the 1-year limitation set forth in H.R. 10318. We estimate that we could expand our program an additional $400 million within 90 days, but these projects could not be completed within 1 year. I have attached to this statement a breakdown of these projects. The Agency also favors the authorization of the $600-million capital improvements program for areas of substantial unemployment recommended by the President. If projects financed under this proposal must also be completed within 12 months after initiation, the total program which FAA could undertake would necessarily be limited to a fraction of the amounts which I have already cited. Our ability to concentrate capital improvements in economically depressed areas is, unfortunately, severely limited by the fact that air navigation facilities must be placed where they are capable of contributing to the national airways system. We will, however, use every possible leeway in giving priority attention to those needs of the Nation's air transportation system which can be met by capital improvements in depressed areas. In summary, the Agency is eager to do all that it can to ward off recessions and to assist economically depressed areas. Funds made available under the capital improvements program would be used to finance carefully planned and urgently needed additions to our airways system. This is our statement, Mr. Chairman. We would be pleased to answer any questions the committee might have. (Attachment 1 referred to is as follows:) ATTACHMENT 1.-Federal Aviation Agency's possible contribution toward a capital improvement acceleration program under H.R. 103181 1 The majority of the items included are not currently funded but will be needed by the Agency within the next several years. Mr. FALLON. Thank you very much, Mr. Dean. Mr. BLATNIK. That is a very good and concise statement on a very excellent program, a very badly needed program. Mr. Dean, you talk about direct capital improvement expenditures by the FAA for procurement and installation of aircraft control and air navigational facilities required for safety. Are these navigation aids and other safety facilities installed with 100 percent Federal grants or Federal moneys? Mr. DEAN. Yes, sir; these are entirely Federal funds. Mr. BLATNIK. You are going to install these on municipal airports across the country? Mr. DEAN. The purchases for navigation aids are entirely out of Federal appropriations made to the Federal Aviation Agency. Assistance to airports, except those in the National Capital area, is in the form of grants. Mr. BLATNIK. Yes. So you would be able to take part and insure that the allocation of the moneys allocated to you were made available for grants for labor areas. You would be able to take part in that? Mr. DEAN. We could, Mr. Blatnik. We could make use immediately of about $72 million. Mr. BLATNIK. What is your annual spending? I thought that was $72 million a year now. Is it $75 million? Mr. DEAN. $72 million, in additional projects, could be put under construction, or procurement, if we had money from Mr. BLATNIK. In addition to the current Mr. DEAN. In addition to the current program. Mr. BLATNIK. Which is what amount? Mr. DEAN. The current program in facilities and equipment of the Agency is around $120 million. Mr. BLATNIK. That is all, Mr. Chairman. Mr. BALDWIN. Mr. Chairman? Mr. FALLON. Mr. Scherer? Mr. SCHERER. No questions. Mr. BALDWIN. Mr. Chairman? 83015-62-11 Mr. BALDWIN. Mr. Dean, could you tell me the amount appropri ated last year and in previous years for these air traffic control and air navigation facilities, and of that amount, what amount as of now is still unobligated? Mr. DEAN. Approximately $180 million is unobligated at this time. Mr. BALDWIN. Which you could spend, therefore, at any time? Mr. DEAN. No, sir. The unobligated money is at various stages of planning within the Agency. It may be a number of months before we would be able to actually enter into contracts in some cases. It is money on which we do have the funding, the approval by the Congress, and plans are being made to spend that money at this time. Mr. BALDWIN. Now, secondly, on the grants in aid Mr. SCHERER. Would you yield for a question, one question? Mr. SCHERER. You could accelerate the spending of that $180 million of unobligated moneys for which you are in the process of making plans, et cetera, could you not? Mr. DEAN. Not very much. The Agency right now, under a sense of urgency to modernize needed air navigation facilities, is moving ahead about as rapidly as its resources permit to buy complex electronic equipment. This requires finding a manufacturer who can build it, assuring its good quality to meet our tests, and installing it in the field, all of which is a rather complex job. Mr. BALDWIN. Well, then you are implying you could not use any other additional funds? Mr. DEAN. No; the additional money which we say we could use would be for projects we do not now have funded, but which by their nature we could get underway and complete in 1 year. You see, every dollar we now have available, even that which is unobligated, is for the purpose of financing individual projects which were presented to the Committees on Appropriations. Mr. BALDWIN. Could I ask a second question? On the grant-in-aid program of $75 million a year how much presently is unobligated that has been appropriated by Congress in past years for the grant-in-aid program? Mr. DEAN. Around $90 million at the end of February. Mr. BALDWIN. Could you not speed up the distribution of those funds? Mr. DEAN. Grants-in-aid are particularly difficult to speed up because we rely, naturally, upon the rapidity which the community can complete its planning, get its necessary focal approvals and get the project underway. We have done everything we could in the last several years to keep this Federal aid to airports program moving. Now, if we were to get funds for projects that are not now included in our program but which, by their nature, could be rather quickly installed, then we could productively use additional money for Federal grants-in-aid for airports. Mr. BALDWIN. Well, I am a little bit confused by the fact that on the two existing programs you are trying to assure us you cannot speed them up but on anything that has to be started from scratch you say you can do it much more rapidly. Mr. DEAN. I think we can clarify that by explaining how we operate in both areas. I mentioned previously, with respect to navigation facilities, we come before the Appropriations Committee with specific indicatons as to how we will use that money. These are funded projects. We do not obligate the money, however, until we can enter into a contract. We are always able to use productively additional funds which, for various reasons, the Agency did not receive, for certain desirable projects. The same thing applies to Federal grants-in-aid. There is a national airport program. We develop that program annually and we allocate funds to specific communities, and this is a bond of honor on the part of the Government. Now, after allocating the $75 million that is available in a given year, additional needs remain unmet. We are telling the committee that, if additional funds were made available, we could both advance our program for navigation aids in unfunded areas and also increase. the number of airport assistance projects which we can support. Mr. DOOLEY. Will the gentleman yield? Mr. BALDWIN. Yes. Mr. DOOLEY. In the course of your statement you mentioned that you thought the President should have standby authority. Have you found the Congress to be derelict or slow in functioning or, as the case last year, when we had the aviation bill up, have we been slow or derelict or deficient in our actions or what? Mr. DEAN. Mr. Dooley, I can assure you the Federal Aviation Agency feels that the Congress has always treated it with consideration and with a sympathetic understanding of its programs. But it is also true that the Congress is not in session at all times and that the very process of presenting proposals for additional funds or additional legislative authority is time consuming no matter how rapidly the Congress attempts to solve the problem, sir. All I was saying in my statement was that, if you wish to be able to move very rapidly at the time a recession appears to be underway, it seems to this Agency that the President should have at least some authority of a standby character, conditioned by standards such as those in the proposed bills, which he can use as soon as the need arises. Mr. DOOLEY. As a matter of urgency, the Congress could be called back in a matter of 24 hours, but this is going pretty far in giving the President practically a veto, and giving him the power to allocate funds that are unobligated and using them for purposes other than that for which they were intended. Mr. DEAN. Mr. Dooley, the President has made this recommendation. The Agency, out of its experience, supports that recommendation. Of course, it is up to the Congress to decide how much of this authority it wishes to grant the President. Mr. FALLON. Mr. Harvey? Mr. HARVEY. I wonder if the witness could tell me if you have any projects at the present time in the so-called depressed areas. Mr. DEAN. Numerous of our projects are located in depressed areas particularly if you include the additional 135 areas mentioned by the President in his request for $600 million in additional funds. We have, for example, in one depressed area, Atlantic City, N.J., our great National Aviation Facilities Experimental Center, an installation which largely consists of temporary buildings inherited from the Navy, and which needs to be extensively improved and modernized and where we now have some active construction projects. This is the type of area where we would try to do as much as we could if additional funds were made available. Mr. HARVEY. Well, let me ask you this: Have any of these municipalities or other areas made application, that you know of, to the area redevelopment authority for help from you along the lines of these airports projects? Do you have any in the works right now for runways or towers or any other projects under the area Redevelopment Act, because they would go through you even though, as I understand it, the funds would come from the ARA? Is that correct? Mr. DEAN. I am not familiar with the details of how the ARA administers its program. I am not aware of any airport projects that have been initiated by them at this time. Mr. FALLON. Are there any other questions? down here today. your associates very much for coming Mr. DEAN. We thank the committee. Mr. FALLON. Mr. Charles Stoddard. Mr. Stoddard? STATEMENT OF CHARLES H. STODDARD, DIRECTOR, RESOURCES PROGRAM STAFF; ACCOMPANIED BY MARK B. WELT, BUDGET FINANCE OFFICER, BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT; AND JAMES C. RETTIE, SENIOR ECONOMIST, RESOURCES PROGRAM STAFF, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mr. FALLON. Mr. Stoddard, will you give to the reporter your full name, title, and Department, and will you introduce your associates? Mr. STODDARD. My name is Charles H. Stoddard. I am the Director of the Resources Program Staff, Department of Interior. I have with me Mr. James Rettie, who is the Chief Economist on our staff, and Mr. Welt, who is the Budget and Finance Officer in the Bureau of Land Management. Mr. FALLON. Thank you, Mr. Stoddard. On behalf of the committee, I want to thank you and your associates for coming here today and I want to say that we appreciate very much your coming down here today. You may proceed, Mr. Stoddard. Mr. STODDARD. Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, the Department of Interior appreciates your invitation to appear before you today. The proposal you are considering would give the President standby authority to proclaim contrarecession capital improvements programs. We believe that proposal has great merit, and we favor enactment of legislation along the lines of H.R. 10318 and other identical bills. Our formal report on H.R. 10318 recommends a slight amendment to make clear that Indian resources would be included. Previous witnesses from the executive branch have discussed the main economic and social objectives sought in the proposed legisla |