Page 46 - Planning and Design of Airports

24 Airp o r t Pl anning

Programs to inform the public on the needs for airport improvement
must be carefully planned and executed. Thus, after the completion
of these events, local governments frequently found that sufficient
federal funds were not appropriated to match local funds, and the
projects were delayed. Another complaint of local governments had
been that Congress failed to fulfill its obligation, since the amount
appropriated by Congress fell far short of the amount authorized by
the Federal Airport Act. These deficiencies as well as other matters
were incorporated in a bill (S. l855). Hearings on the bill were held
before the subcommittee of the Committee on Interstate and Foreign
Commerce of the United States Senate in l955. Representatives of the
Council of State Governments, the American Municipal Association, the
National Association of State Aviation Officials, airport and industry
trade associations, and individuals were unanimous in the feeling
that air transportation had reached a stage of maturity where many
airports were woefully inadequate and greater financial assistance
from the federal government would be required to meet the current
needs of aviation. After much debate, the bill was approved by the
President (Public Law 84-211).
This amending act made no change in the basic policies and pur-
poses expressed in the original act. There were no changes in the
requirements with respect to the administration of the grants author-
ized, such as the distribution and apportionment of funds, the eligi-
bility of the various types of airport construction, sponsorship
requirements, etc. The primary purpose of the act was to substitute
for the procedure of authorizing annual appropriations for airport
projects, provisions granting substantial annual contract authoriza-
tion in specific amounts over a period of four fiscal years. Airport
sponsors were thus furnished assurance that federal funds would be
available at the time projects were to be undertaken.
This law provided $40 million for fiscal year l956 and $60 million
for each of fiscal years l957, l958, and l959 for airport construction in
the continental United States. It also provided $2.5 million in fiscal
year l956 and $3 million for the three succeeding fiscal years for air-
port construction in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin
Islands. Besides the $42.5 million made available in fiscal year l956 by
Public Law 84-2ll, Congress approved an additional appropriation of
$20 million for airport projects.

Federal Aviation Act of 1958
For a number of years there had been a growing concern about the
division of responsibility in aviation matters among different agen-
cies of the federal government. Unlike highway or other forms of
transport, aviation is unique in its relation to the federal government.
It was historically the only mode whose operations are conducted
almost wholly within federal jurisdiction, and one subject to little or