Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1989

(Conference report filed in House, H. Rept. 100-957)

Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1989 - Title I: Department of Transportation - Makes appropriations for FY 1989 for the necessary expenses of: (1) the Office of the Secretary of Transportation for salaries and expenses, transportation planning, research, and development, and the Working Capital Fund; (2) payments to air carriers; and (3) the Coast Guard for operating expenses, acquisition, construction, and improvements, for alteration or removal of obstructive bridges, for retired pay, reserve training, research, development, testing, and evaluation, the Offshore Oil Pollution Compensation Fund, the Deepwater Port Liability Fund, and recreational boating safety assistance.

Appropriates funds for the necessary expenses of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for: (1) operations, facilities, engineering, and research and development, (including funds for grants for university airway science curriculum programs, and for construction of an auxiliary air traffic control tower at the Orlando International Airport); (2) grants-in-aid for airports (but suspends grants-in-aid commitments for the Massachusetts Airport Authority if its fee structure for Logan International Airport is determined by the Department of Transportation to be inconsistent with certain statutory guidelines and national transportation policy); (3) the Aviation Insurance Revolving Fund; and (4) the aircraft purchase loan guarantee program.

Appropriates funds to the Federal Highway Administration for: (1) general operating expenses; (2) highway safety research and development, and highway-related safety grants; (3) railroad-highway crossings demonstration projects; (4) Federal-aid highways; (5) motor carrier safety; (6) access highways to public recreation areas on certain lakes; (7) the Baltimore-Washington Parkway; (8) an intermodal urban demonstration project as part of the Federal-aid highway program; (9) highway safety and economic development demonstration projects; (10) an airport access demonstration project near the Ontario International Airport in San Bernardino County, California; (11) a coordinated highway improvement project in the vicinity of Pontiac and East Lansing, Michigan; (12) a highway-railroad grade crossing safety demonstration project in Mineola, New York; (13) a nuclear waste transportation route in the Los Alamos-Santa Fe, New Mexico corridor; (14) a highway widening demonstration project in the vicinity of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania; (15) a bridge improvement demonstration project in the vicinity of Jacksonville, Florida; (16) a highway widening and improvement demonstration project between Paintsville and Prestonburg, Kentucky; (17) an intersection safety demonstration project near El Segundo, California; (18) a highway capacity improvement demonstration project in Jackson County, Florida; (19) a climbing lane safety demonstration project in Tioga County, Pennsylvania; (20) an industrial corridor safety demonstration project between Wabash and Huntington, Indiana; (21) a pedestrian safety demonstration project in Magna, Utah; (22) a highway widening demonstration project in Oklahoma; (23) a highway bypass demonstration project near Jasper, Alabama; (24) a bridge demonstration project in Owensboro, Kentucky; (25) a High Occupancy Vehicle lane demonstration project in Northern Virginia; (26) an urban highway corridor demonstration project and an urban airport access safety demonstration project in southeast Michigan; (27) an urban airport access safety demonstration project in Southeast Michigan; (28) a corridor safety improvement project in New Jersey; (29) a bridge capacity improvement project in Nashua, New Hampshire; (30) an improvement project on the Corridor H segment of the Appalachian Highway System; (31) a road extension demonstration project in Iowa; (32) the Walnut Street Bridge restoration project in Chattanooga, Tennessee; and (33) reconstruction costs of a Federal-aid secondary road on the Gila Indian Reservation and the Maricopa Ak Chin Indian Reservation in Arizona. Sets a limit on direct loans from the Right-of-Way Revolving Fund.

Appropriates funds to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for operations and research and highway traffic safety grants.

Appropriates funds to the Federal Railroad Administration for: (1) the Office of the Administrator; (2) railroad safety; (3) railroad research and development; (4) the Northeast Corridor improvement program; and (5) grants to the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Directs the Secretary of Transportation to assume the first deed of trust on the Washington Union Station.

Authorizes the issuance of notes to the Secretary of the Treasury for payment of loan guarantees from railroad rehabilitation and improvement financing funds. Prohibits commitments to guarantee new loans for railroad rehabilitation and improvement during FY 1989. Makes appropriations for Conrail commuter transition assistance.

Appropriates funds to the Urban Mass Transportation Administration for: (1) administrative expenses; (2) research, training, and human resources; (3) formula grants; (4) discretionary grants; (5) the mass transit capital fund; (6) Interstate transfer grants; and (7) the Washington Metro.

Appropriates funds to: (1) the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation for administrative expenses, operations and maintenance; (2) the Research and Special Programs Administration (including the pipeline safety program); and (3) the Office of the Inspector General for salaries and expenses.

Title II: Related Agencies - Makes appropriations for FY 1989 for the necessary expenses of: (1) the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board; (2) the National Transportation Safety Board; (3) the Interstate Commerce Commission for salaries and expenses (with a limit on payments for directed rail service); (4) the Panama Canal Commission for official reception and representation expenses; (5) the Department of the Treasury for certain toll rebates; and (6) the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority for interest payments.

Title III: General Provisions - Permits the apportionment of funds appropriated for the Panama Canal Commission.

Permits the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to provide for the expenses of primary and secondary schooling for dependents of FAA personnel stationed outside the United States when the Secretary of Transportation determines that adequate schooling is unavailable in the locality and that adequate schools are not accessible by public transportation.

Prohibits the use of Panama Canal Commission appropriations unless in conformance with the Panama Canal Treaties of 1977.

Prohibits the use of appropriated funds to plan or execute any program to compensate non-Federal parties intervening in regulatory or adjudicatory proceedings under this Act.

Prohibits appropriated funds from being available beyond the current fiscal year unless expressly so provided.

Prohibits the use of funds for the planning or implementation of any change in the current Federal status of the Transportation Systems Center or of the Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center.

Limits the use of appropriated funds for consulting services to those contracts that are a matter of public record and are available for public inspection.

Directs the Secretary of Transportation to distribute the obligation limitation for Federal-aid highways according to a specified formula. Sets an obligation limitation upon the amounts distributed to the States, except for funds obligated for the Dan Ryan Expressway.

Directs the Secretary to: (1) provide the States with authority to prevent lapses of authorized appropriations apportioned to them for Federal-aid highways and highway safety construction; (2) redistribute funds from States which will not obligate funds to those States which are able to obligate funds; and (3) not distribute amounts authorized for administrative expenses, the Federal lands highway program, and the strategic highway research program. Prescribes guidelines under which the States may obligate certain amounts within a specified time period for Federal-aid highways, highway safety construction, and highway assistance.

Limits the use of appropriated funds for salaries and expenses to 120 political appointees in the Department of Transportation.

Limits expenditures for advisory committees.

Conditions the use of appropriated funds for the Woodward light rail line in Detroit, Michigan, upon approval in accordance with Michigan law of a source of operating funds.

Prohibits the use of funds under this Act for any costs related to the Central Automated Transit System (Downtown People Mover) in Detroit, Michigan.

Requires the Secretary of Transportation to report to the Congress by January 1 of each year regarding the safety enforcement activities of the FAA.

Directs the Department of Transportation to submit a long-range, multi-modal national transportation strategic planning study to the Congress before October 1, 1989.

Directs the Urban Mass Transportation Administration to publish in the Federal Register within seven calendar days of obligation an announcement of certain grants obligated under the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964.

Prohibits the use of funds under this Act for a national policy specifying that only a single type of visual glideslope indicator can be funded through the airport improvement program.

Directs the Secretary of Transportation to permit the obligation of a certain apportionment for the State of Florida for operating expenses of the Tri-County Commuter Rail Project (in the area of Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties) during each year that Interstate 95 is under reconstruction in such area.

Denies the use of funds under this Act for rental payments to the General Services Administration which exceed by 102 percent or more the rental payments made during FY 1988. Reduces the FY 1989 obligations and outlays of the Federal Buildings Fund by revenue reduction to such Fund by the rental payments limitations.

Declares inapplicable to the Virginia Street Bridge in Charleston, West Virginia, certain appropriations earmarked for the highway bridge replacement and rehabilitation program.

Requires the Secretary to make specified funds available per year out of the Highway Trust Fund for a national public information program regarding rail-highway crossing hazards.

Declares specified waters in and around Camden, New Jersey, to be nonnavigable for purposes of the General Bridge Act of 1946.

Amends Federal-aid highway law regarding Federal participation in State toll facilities to direct the Secretary to reimburse the Texas Turnpike Authority for the Federal share of toll project construction costs upon the request of the Texas Department of Highways and Public Transportation.

Prescribes appropriation guidelines for the International Zaragosa Bridge in Texas. Rescinds specified funds apportioned to the State of Texas under Federal minimum allocation guidelines (effective October 1, 1988).

Proscribes the use of any Federal funds for a specified highway facility at Gainesville, Virginia (in the vicinity of Manassas Battlefield Park) until December 31, 1990. Provides that Federal charter service regulations shall not apply to the Long Beach Public Transportation Company.

Makes appropriations for the Alabama Feasibility Study and mandates that such Study include environmental assessment, economic analysis, and engineering. Extends from one to two years the deadline by which the Secretary of Transportation must submit the study results to certain congressional committees.

Makes appropriations for an expressway safety improvement demonstration project between Lake Success and Medford, New York (State).

Provides that funds appropriated for the Mass Transit Capital Fund shall be available to pay obligations incurred in implementing the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act of 1987.

Requires the Secretary to transfer certain Discretionary Grants funds from the Urban Mass Transportation Administration to the Federal Highway Administration by January 1, 1989, to cover the Federal share of the cost of the transit element of the Acosta Bridge Replacement Project in Jacksonville, Florida under specified conditions.

Requires the Secretary to enter into negotiations with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority (Florida) regarding the release of certain funds for the Automated Skyway Express project in FY 1985.

Requires the Federal Aviation Administration to satisfy specified air traffic controller work force staffing requirements by September 30, 1989.

Mandates that all airport grant letters of intent in excess of $10,000,000 shall be submitted for approval to certain congressional committees.

Amends the Rail Passenger Services Act to exempt commuter authorities, as of October 1, 1981, from the payment of taxes or other fees to the same extent as the National Railroad Passenger Corporation. Sets forth conditions under which the directional route miles of a commuter rail service which has been suspended for safety reasons will be included in the 1988 Section 15 Report.

Provides that discretionary bridge funds allocated for the Main Avenue Bridge in Cleveland, Ohio, shall not be included in any minimum allocation calculations.

Directs the Secretary to grant a request by Nevada local officials to redesignate certain funds for specified projects on Route 95 in Nevada.

Authorizes appropriations from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund to implement emergency repairs to airports sustaining storm-related damage.

Requires the Secretary to submit for congressional approval the transfer of funds appropriated under the "Office of the Secretary, Salaries and Expenses." Restricts to two percent any appropriation modification.

Authorizes the Secretary of the department in which the Coast Guard is operating to transfer to Gloucester, New Jersey, without consideration, all U.S. interest in certain land comprising Station Gloucester City.

Exempts the Caltrain project from certain grant-making prerequisites of the Urban Mass Transportation Act of 1964, and directs the Urban Mass Transportation Administration to release the amounts for such project.

Appropriates funds to the Soo Line Railroad Company for railroad passenger service between La Crosse and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on a matching funds basis.

Directs the National Railroad Passenger Corporation to submit an application to the Secretary of Transportation to order the operation of rail passenger service between Fresno and Stockton, California, over the rail lines of the Southern Pacific Railroad after the Corporation receives assurance that all necessary capital funding will be provided from a non-Amtrak source.

Amends the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to extend from January 1, 1989, to January 1, 1999, the authority of the Secretary regarding air transportation of mail between two points both of which are within the State of Alaska. Prescribes expenditure limitations for FY 1989 for consulting services contracts entered into by Federal agencies or instrumentalities.

Amends the Highway Improvement Act of 1982 to provide that any project involving an approved Interstate route or segment relocation is eligible for interstate discretionary funding.

Directs the Federal Aviation Administration Administrator to institute a rulemaking proceeding to consider changes to the current slot allocation and transfer methods at certain high density traffic airports. Sets forth the issues to be considered in such proceeding.

Suspends the use of appropriations under this Act to close any Coast Guard search and rescue operation until 90 days after the Comptroller General reports to the Congress his evaluation of the criteria used by the Coast Guard to eliminate such operations.

Prevents the Secretary of Transportation from reducing or reserving Federal-aid-highway funds from States for reason of non-compliance with Federal speed limit criteria during FY 1986 through 1988. Orders the Secretary to promptly restore any apportionments which were withheld due to such non-compliance.

Amends the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1987 to authorize the Secretary to implement a highway construction project: (1) from Eastport to Homedale, Idaho; and (2) in the vicinity of Asheville, North Carolina, and the Charlotte Outer Loop.

Authorizes the Secretary to make funds available to assist local planning and development studies for the relocation of railroad tracks on college campuses to eliminate safety and environmental hazards.