TABLE 18.-Salary costs of personnel employees, by major departments and agencies, by functions, as of Sept. 30, 1947

115, 033. 56

14, 674. 64
5,791. 20
19,003. 80

TABLE 19.—Personnel employees performing examining and rating board functions

80TH CONGRESS 2d Session

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

REPORT No. 1594

FEDERAL-AID HIGHWAY ACT OF 1948

MARCH 22, 1948.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

Mr. DONDERO, from the Committee on Public Works, submitted the

following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 5888]

The Committee on Public Works, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 5888) to amend and supplement the Federal-Aid Road Act approved July 11, 1916 (39 Stat. 355), as amended and supplemented, to authorize appropriations for continuing the construction of highways, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.

INTRODUCTION

This bill is a substitute for H. R. 4867 and 4868, upon which the Subcommittee on Roads held extensive public hearings with witnesses representing agriculture and industry, road users and other groups, Federal and State officials, and Members of Congress.

The testimony indicated very general approval of the program provided by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944, which carried authorizations for a 3-year postwar Federal-aid highway program at the rate of $500,000,000 a year, divided as follows:

(a) $225,000,000 for projects on the Federal-aid primary highway system either inside or outside municipalities.

(b) $150,000,000 for projects on the Federal-aid secondary highway system, which includes farm-to-market roads, rural free delivery mail, and public-school bus routes.

(c) $125,000,000 for projects on the Federal-aid urban highway system.

This bill proposes to carry forward the 1944 act for another 3-year period at the same rate of $500,000,000 per year and with the same division of funds among the three categories of projects beginning with the fiscal year ending June 30, 1950, and continuing through the fiscal years ending June 30, 1951, and June 30, 1952. The funds

authorized will be apportioned among the States under the formulas prescribed in the 1944 act.

Testimony submitted to the committee indicated that the State highway departments and the Public Roads Administration have followed a very conservative policy in the awarding of contracts in a successful effort to avoid an inflationary spiral in highway costs.

Figures submitted to the committee indicate that the Federal contribution to the total highway program of States, cities, and counties, including both construction and maintenance, during the years 1946 and 1947 has only slightly exceeded 14 percent and would not have reached 20 percent had the full highway authorization been utilized. The committee feels warranted, therefore, in recommending the continuation for another 3-year period in the same amounts as provided in the 1944 act.

The secondary or farm-to-market road program and the urban highway program provided in the 1944 act were new on the scale authorized, and launched the Federal Government for the first time on a fully integrated over-all highway program that gives recognition to the Federal interests and responsibility in these fields. Selection of the urban highway systems and the secondary road systems in the several States is well under way. New language in this bill makes clear that the term "secondary and feeder roads" includes both county and township roads and requires the State highway departments to cooperate with county supervisors, county commissioners, township trustees, and other appropriate local road officials in the selection of the system on which the secondary road funds authorized are to be expended. In selecting the routes already included in the secondary system, special consideration has been given to the conservation and development of natural resources and to the encouragement of desirable land utilization.

Data submitted by the American Association of State Highway Officials, based on careful estimates by the individual State highway departments, indicate that the program provided in this bill is a conservative one when measured against the urgent needs for highway improvements. Registration of motor vehicles has increased by some 3,000,000 since the previous peak year of 1941 and a considerable portion of this increase has been in trucks. More and more the farmer is turning to truck transportation to get his products to market.

An excellent start has been made on the postwar highway program in rehabilitating our primary highways and removing traffic bottlenecks in urban areas along with improvement of farm-to-market roads, and this bill will permit a continuation without interruption of this necessary work which is so important to our domestic economy and the national defense. Under the basic Federal highway legislation, funds for the fiscal year 1950 will be apportioned among the States and made available for programing and new work not later than January 1, 1949. The legislatures of 44 States will meet in regular session during 1949. Most of these States will not meet again in regular session until 1951. It is important, therefore, that this bill be enacted at this session of Congress in order that the States will be informed of the Federal-aid program and in position to make any necessary provisions therefor.

In addition to the authorization for the Federal-aid program, this bill continues the authorization for work in the national forests,