Page Smail, R. F., Union Mechling Corp., mailgram__ Stafseth, Henrik E., American Association of State Highway and Trans- 439 436 356 Strickland, Lloyd, Propeller Club of the United States, mailgram__ 435 433 437 438 439 United Purchasers Association, Fred McKim, statement 439 Upper Mississippi Towing Corp., Minneapolis, Minn., H. M. Baskerville, 442 Wachter, Ron, Palouse Producers, Inc., Pullman, Wash., letter. 434 398 Walling, Richard C., Express Marine, Inc., Camden, N.J., telegram__. 402 412 399 442 West Bend (Iowa) Elevator Co., Fred McKim, statement_ 439 West Suburban Humanist Society, Lombard, Ill., Mrs. I. L. Mostek, letter. 443 410 405 Willis, C. G., Inc., Paulsboro, N.J., Emmett W. Butler, Jr., letter. 443 410 436 USER TAXES FOR THE INLAND WATERWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES THURSDAY, JULY 21, 1977 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, Washington, D.C. The committee met at 9:30 a.m., pursuant to notice, in room 1100, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Al Ullman (chairman of the committee) presiding. [Committee press release announcing hearing follows:] [Press release of Thursday, July 14, 1977] HON. AL ULLMAN (D., OREGON), CHAIRMAN, COMMITTEE ON WAYS AND MEANS, U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, ANNOUNCES PUBLIC HEARINGS ON JULY 21 AND 22, 1977, ON THE SUBJECT OF USER TAXES FOR THE INLAND WATERWAYS OF THE UNITED STATES The Honorable Al Ullman (D., Oregon), Chairman of the Committee on Ways and Means, U.S. House of Representatives, today announced that the Committee on Ways and Means on Thursday, July 21, and Friday, July 22, 1977, will conduct two days of public hearings on the subject of user taxes on use of the inland waterways of the United States. The Committee will be pleased to receive testimony from interested parties as to their views and recommendations on the proper type of user taxes (such as a tax on diesel fuel), the proper level of user taxes, and other related matters. The Committee on Ways and Means is coordinating its consideration of this subject with related legislation being considered by the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation. It is expected that the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation will have completed action on a bill relating to certain locks and dams on the inland waterways by July 20 and that whatever action the Committee on Ways and Means may take following the two days of public hearings will be embodied as Title II to the Public Works and Transportation Committee bill. The Committee on Ways and Means anticipates considering this subject in markup session on Monday, July 25. Those interested in testifying before the Committee on Ways and Means on the subject of user taxes for the use of the inland waterways of the United States should contact John M. Martin, Jr., Chief Counsel, Committee on Ways and Means, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D. C. 20515, no later than the close of business Tuesday, July 19. Where possible, it is recommended that this contact be made by telephone in order to be certain that the request is received in the Committee office before the closing date. The Committee telephone number is (202) 225-3625. Those scheduled to testify will be notified by telephone as soon as possible after the filing deadline. It is expected that testimony will be received from officials of the Department of Transportation and the Department of the Treasury, to be followed by testimony from the general public requesting to be heard. The hearing will be conducted in the Main Committee Hearing Room, Room 1100 of the Longworth House Office Building, beginning at 9:30 a.m. The very limited time available to the Committee for this hearing requires that all persons and organizations designate one spokesman to represent them (1) where they have the same general position. Any person or organization may file a written statement for inclusion in the printed record of the hearing instead of appearing in person. Time of witnesses for verbal statements will be strictly limited by the Committee. It is requested that persons scheduled to appear submit 75 copies of their prepared statement to the Committee office, Room 1102 Longworth House Office Building, 24 hours in advance of the appearance, if feasible. Persons submitting a written statement in lieu of a personal appearance should submit at least five copies of their statement by the close of business Friday, July 22. If those making personal appearances wish copies of their statement distributed to the press and public, additional copies may be furnished for this purpose. If those filing for the record want copies of their statement distributed to the Members of the Committee, press and public, additional copies may be submitted for this purpose if delivered to the Committee office by 9:00 a.m. on Friday, July 22. All statements, whether for a personal appearance or for the record of this hearing, should be delivered or mailed to John M. Martin, Jr., Chief Counsel, Committee on Ways and Means, 1102 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D. C. 20515. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will please be in order. This hearing was called to receive testimony on the subject of waterway charges. We are operating in conjunction with the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation to develop an appropriate bill involving on the one hand authorization for expenditures for locks and dams which is under the jurisdiction of the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation and on the other hand waterway user charges which are under the jurisdiction of this committee. Recognizing the urgency of this matter, and in order to fully cooperate with the leadership with the House Committee on Public Works and Transportation, we broke into our schedule this week in order to schedule these 2 days of public hearings so that we might hear all these parties concerned and we have also a markup session for next Monday the 25th. Our first witness this morning will be Hon. Brock Adams, our former colleague from the House of Representatives, now Secretary of Transportation. Welcome back to the Hill and back to the committee, Mr. Secretary. We are glad to hear you. STATEMENT OF HON. BROCK ADAMS, SECRETARY OF TRANSPORTATION Secretary ADAMS. Thank you very much. I particularly appreciate the willingness of this committee and of the Public Works Committee to move on this matter promptly. I wanted to express that before going to my statement which will be short. Then I will be happy to answer questions and discuss the matter, Mr. Chairman, with you and the members of the committee. I would like to ask at this point unanimous consent that my statement appear in full in the record and then I will summarize it. The CHAIRMAN. Without objection, your full statement and supplemental materials will be in the record. Let me say before you proceed that I think everyone is aware of the time factor involved. Due to the action of the other body in attaching this matter to the river basin bill, it now has been separated by the Public Works Committee as of last evening in reporting out a sepa rate bill for Lock 26 including the framework for a user charge the details of which would be filled in by this committee. You may proceed, sir. sys Secretary ADAMS. Mr. Chairman, as you know the President feels very strongly that the Congress should enact a fair and effective tem of waterway user charges in order to put in place an orderly system of construction, operation and maintenance of the inland waterway system of the United States. As we are all aware the commercial users of the waterways receive substantial benefits from the operation of the Federal system and, at the present time, all of the expenditures fall on the shoulders of the taxpayer. What we are recommending, and what I have testified to both on the Senate and on the House side, is that we establish such an orderly system. On the Senate side, when I testified there I want this committee to know that when I testified on the Senate side every effort was made to attempt to be certain that their action would not in any way violate the jurisdictional charges that come to this committee under the Constitution. I recognize that there has been a question about that. I support the efforts of the House and the Senate to see that that does not become an issue, because I don't think that would be productive. So I want to express my appreciation, Mr. Chairman, for the manner in which an attempt is being made to avoid that and to go to the merits. of the issue. The program that we have been talking about-and this is a longterm program-would phase in over 10 years charges that eventually would recover 100 percent of operating and maintenance costs associated with navigation and 50 percent of the costs of new construction. We are not asking waterway users to pay for costs attributable to purposes other than navigation. We also recognize that with new construction there may be benefits to other groups, such as recreational boat users, that this committee might want to take into account at a different time. We have suggested a 10-year period because we understand that the phasing in of a new system like this should take some time. We originally testified that a fuel tax would be a simple and fair approach to this. However, this was not the system that was opted for in the Senate. It was suggested there-and we supported this in previous testimony-that the Secretary of Transportation, in consultation with the Secretary of the Army, should study the matter and then publish proposed regulations, and after public comment and a public hearing process, the Department of Transportation would promulgate final regulations. If the Congress did not disapprove those regulations by a joint resolution-not a concurrent resolution--then they would go into effect on October 1, 1979, and by go into effect I mean the starting of the phasing-in over the 10-year period. An acceptable alternative to the administration is to use fees and tolls as contemplated in the Senate-passed bill but we also, Mr. Chairman, recognize and would support-and we are hopeful we can arrive at an appropriate compromise-the use of a fuel tax as a portion of this program. If you opt for a fuel tax to raise some of the revenue that otherwise would be collected by tolls or segment charges, we would support that so long as we arrive at the long-term goal of col |