Page images
PDF
EPUB

to the same extent if you develop the Assistant Secretaries on Research, Planning, et cetera. Is that correct?

Mr. CARR. I don't think we are talking about doing away with the four Under Secretaries for staff purposes that have been proposed, actually. I think we are talking about additional ones. But I think your point is well taken.

Mr. COPENHAVER. Not to take too much time, but you are harking back to what I said before. There has been a statement that section 7 of the act is drawn from the Water Resources Planning Act, and there is a similarity there. My point is there is not a clear similarity, because you preserve separate identities on the Water Resources Couneil, which you do not maintain in the Department of Transportation. The other question I have, could Mr. Mechling give us some indications of where he thinks there are drawbacks or failures in the proper protection or advancement of transportation today and how he believes that these would be corrected through the creation of a new Department of Transportation?

Mr. MECHLING. Well, it would come back in many ways to the judgment or the decisionmaking process that would be undertaken and how they would be presented. In many of these cases, if you were to determine navigation projects, determine the feasibility of it, on the effect of an existing mode, as I have said earlier, and this would be the end of further improvement in water resources for navigation, because by decision of establishing a criteria that this would affect an existing mode would be automatic, if, say, you only had a mule train moving traffic and you improved the waterway, this would affect the traffic of the mule train. So we are concerned about placing in the hands of one person the authority and power to prescribe. Mr. COPENHAVER. Let me reiterate my question. In what way do you believe there are deficiencies today in transportation? Do you have knowledge about other deficiencies in other modes of transportation? Or in water transportation? Which should be improved upon and which could be improved upon if there was created a new Department of Transportation?

Mr. MECHLING. Well, sir, I think it always comes back to the coordination of services. There is one area where direct attention could be given to coordinating the services. I was reminded that we are not getting into a pricing and regulation situation here. But coordination of services, encouragement of coordination, in many ways the existing facilities could be better used in the public interest.

Mr. HENDERSON. Just one question: Mr. Mechling, when you file your proposed amendments, would you kindly file also an accompanying statement with them, advising us as to just what you think the effect of those amendments would be? We sometimes get into different interpretations of language.

And then, could you suggest a time when you might be able to do

that?

Mr. MECHLING. Is 10 days all right?

Mr. HENDERSON. All right.

(The information appears as app. 6 on p. 339.)

Mr. ROSENTHAL (presiding). Thank you very much.

Mr. ROSENTHAL. Our next witness will be Mr. Frederick B. Lee, Director National Pilots Association.

STATEMENT OF FREDERICK B. LEE, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL PILOTS ASSOCIATION; ACCOMPANIED BY DAVID H. SCOTT, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NATIONAL PILOTS ASSOCIATION

Mr. LEE. Mr. Chairman, I would like to introduce Mr. David H. Scott, who is executive vice president of the National Pilots Association.

Mr. Chairman, my name is Frederick B. Lee and I appear here as a director of the National Pilots Association.

This association includes in its membership all grades of pilot competency ranging from students to air transport rated pilots. Our membership also includes airline pilots and military pilots who fly civil aircraft. For the most part our membership is interested in personal and business flying, commonly referred to as general aviation.

The National Pilots Association is strictly a noncommercial and nonprofit organization. Its officers are elected each year through ballots sent to every member, and except for our professional staff here in Washington, they serve without compensation. NPA is primarily interested in aviation education to the extent of serving all elements of general aviation and particularly those who wish to retain or upgrade their proficiency in being safe and skillful airplane pilots.

From the study of H.R. 13200, the briefings we have had on the proposed Department of Transportation and from what we have read in the press, it is our understanding that the proposed department would hope to achieve these two main goals of:

(1) Better coordination of transportation policy within the Federal Government.

(2) More economical operations by the various groups that deal with all forms of national transportation.

We have no doubt that there are compelling reasons to consolidate the many agencies and bureaus dealing with the various aspects of ground transportation. The same remarks also hold for the numer ous organizations within the Federal Government that are concerned with inland and intercoastal waterway transportation.

As far as air transportation is concerned, we believe the problems of aviation are so unique and extraordinary that it is essential that there be a separate agency of the Federal Government to deal with this industry that is changing so rapidly.

I have some experience with the former agency that dealt with aviation, the Civil Aeronautics Administration, when it was a unit within the Department of Commerce. My overriding difficulty as Administrator of Civil Aeronautics was in obtaining sufficient funds to provide for the rapidly expanding needs of civil aviation and for the safety of both civil and military flight operations.

Exhibit A of this statement shows a graph of appropriations for civil aviation within the Department of Commerce and extending up through the years of the Federal Aviation Agency.

(Exhibit A follows:)

[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][merged small][merged small][merged small][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed][subsumed]

Mr. LEE. When Congress wisely provided for a separate Federal Aviation Agency in 1958 this new organization was provided_with resources which enabled it to plan for a modern air traffic control system and for other programs essential to the safety and to the development of civil aviation within the United States.

You will note that in the years prior to 1956, the year an independent FAA was proposed, the CAA never received more than $151.9 million, while in the years since 1958 the Federal Aviation Agency has been given from $565 to $868 million to provide for its necessary functions.

It is our feeling that once the Federal Aviation Agency is absorbed within a larger Department of Transportation, aviation would again suffer from inadequate support. As we have previously hinted, civil aviation is going through vast changes during the coming decade. We are presently in the throes of a revolution in air traffic control with the advent of the beacon system. We are in the midst of supersonic transportation development which will revolutionize long-distance transportation in the 1970's. General aviation alone is expanding at such a rapid pace that we will see personal and business flying account for the majority of aircraft movements at every airport in the country with the exception of purely military fields and two or three international airports specializing in long-range flights. General aviation will be the dominant user of the airspace and the air traffic control system.

The existing forms of ground and water transportation have nothing in the way of similar problems. They are all operating and will continue to operate vehicles that are already highly developed. Their problems are more with efficient administration, safety and labor relationships rather than the further development of revolutionary vehicles and their operation.

The operations of the Federal Aviation Agency are also unique in that the air traffic control system used by the military services is also operated by this Agency. In time of a national emergency the operations of the Federal Aviation Agency are transferred to the Department of Defense. There is now an elaborate mechanism in the FAA which can be instantly responsive to Department of Defense requirements. This would become impossible if the present FAA functions were diluted and intermingled with other activities in the Department of Transportation. We believe that it is easier to correlate the common problems of the Department of Defense with an independent Federal Aviation Agency than to operate with the many facets of a Department of Transportation.

In addition to the problems that the Civil Aeronautics Administration faced when it was a part of the Department of Commerce may we cite the present plight of the Weather Bureau as an example of how service can suffer when a specialized organization is absorbed within a large department.

Although the Weather Bureau has been transferred to a larger agency, the Environmental Scientific Service Administration, and this group within the Department of Commerce, the weather service for general aviation continues to deteriorate in quality and is failing to keep pace with the expanding needs of general aviation. The lack of funding for the Weather Bureau personnel has made it necessary for

the flight service stations of the Federal Aviation Agency to take over the task of distribution of weather information to pilots. Flight service station personnel have been given weather indoctrination courses, but they are not meteorologists and can do little more than read weather reports to the pilots. When the weather is unusual or changing rapidly, experienced pilots need to talk directly to trained meteorologists. Until the Weather Bureau is given sufficient funds to employ and train more meteorologists in support of general aviation comparable to that provided for air carriers we believe that general aviation will be seriously inhibited in reaching its full growth potential. The National Pilots Association has advocated for several years the creation of a Weather Bureau independent of the Department of Commerce. We again reiterate our beliefs that such an agency should be established rather than consolidated within another large department.

Last spring we were told by the administration that it was difficult. to find a proper Administrator for the Federal Aviation Agency. If it was difficult to find a civilian to head up the Federal Aviation Agency in 1965, it will be even more difficult to find an independent minded Administrator to serve within the confines of a large department subject to the supervision of a Secretary of Transportation. The job of being the head of an independent agency that reports only to the President of the United States carries not only prestige and authority, but also economic benefits.

One of the aims of the new Department of Transportation is to correlate the policies of all transportation functions of the Federal Government. If the regulator functions of the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the Federal Maritime Commission remain outside the Department of Transportation, we do not see how effective control and policymaking over all transportation in the United States can be achieved.

Incidentally, we note that the present duties of the Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation provide for "the development of overall transportation policy within the executive branch of the Government, including the mobilization aspects."

Perhaps the solution for this problem of a uniform transportation policy lies merely in the exercise of powers already given to the Under Secretary of Commerce for Transportation.

The proposed legislation provides for the creation of a National Transportation Safety Board to investigate and report on causes of accidents and review on appeal of the suspension, amendment, modification, revocation or denial of certificates or licenses issued by the Secretary of Transportation.

Even though the five members of the Board are appointed independently by the President, we feel that it is unwise to have such a Board with its power to review of certificate action operating within the Department. We do not feel it is proper that any board, no matter what mechanism was used to insure its "independence," could ever be wholly objective in an accident investigation in which their department or agency was involved.

The separation of the accident investigation functions under the CAB is, in our opinion, one of the reasons for the outstanding safety record of U.S. aviation. There are obvious areas of potential expo

« PreviousContinue »