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NOMINATION OF PAUL L. SITTON

GOV ERNMEN I

StorageKSU LIBRARIES 

HEARING

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY

UNITED STATES SENATE

NINETIETH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

ON

THE NOMINATION OF PAUL L. SITTON TO BE URBAN

MASS TRANSPORTATION ADMINISTRATOR

SEPTEMBER 11, 1968

Printed for the use of the

Committee on Banking and Currency

-C.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

99-59r) WASHINGTON : 1968

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COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY

JOHN 'SPARKMAN, Alabama, Chairman

WILLIAM PROXMIRE, Wisconsin WALLACE F. BENNETT, Utah

HARRISON A. WILLIAMS, JR., New Jersey JOHN G. TOWER, Texas

EDMUND S. MUSKIE, Maine BOURKE B. HICKENLOOPER, Iowa

EDWARD V. LONG, Missouri EDWARD W. BROOKE, Massachusetts

THOMAS J. McINTYRE, New Hampshire CHARLES H. PERCY, Illinois

WALTER F. MONDALE, Minnesota

GALE W. McGEE, Wyoming

WILLIAM B. SPONG, JR., Virginia

LEWIS G. ODOM, Jr., Staff Director and General Counsel

JOHN R. EVANS, Minority Staff Director
NOMINATION OF PAUL L. SITTON

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1968

U.S. SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON BANKING AND CURRENCY,

Washington, D .0 .

The committee met at 10:13 a.m., in room 5302, New Senate Office

Building, Senator John Sparkman presiding.

Present: Senators Sparkman and Williams.

The CHAIRMAN. Let the committee come to order, please. We hoped

to have additional Senators here, but all of us have other committee

meetings we need to get to, so we had better go ahead.

Our purpose this morning is to consider the nomination of Mr.

Paul L. Sitton to be Urban Mass Transportation Administrator.

This is a new position. Mr. Sitton is from Georgia. We have the approval of both Senators from Georgia. We also have a biographical

sketch of Mr. Sitton and we have a letter from him stating that he has

no, financial holdings or interests in any way that would conflict with

his duties and that he will not acquire any financial interest in any

transportation-related or related company during the time that he

serves as Administrator, in the event that he is approved.

Mr. Sitton, we are glad to have you with us this morning. We have

your biographical sketch which will be made a part of the record.

If you have any statement to make, we would be very glad to hear it.

(The biographical information follows:)

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION ON PAUL L. SITTON

Residence: 3417 Prospect Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20007.

Legal Address: Rockdale County, Georgia.

Place of Birth: DeKalb County, Georgia.

Date of Birth: November 27,1926.

Marital Status: Married (Wife—Judith L. Sitton).

Education: Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, A.B. 1948; University of

Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, M.A. 1950; Graduate work at George

Washington University and American University intermittently 1954-58.

Employment History

April 1967 to present. —Deputy Under Secretary, Department of Transportation.

September 1965 to April 1967.—Director, Office of Transportation Programs,

Office of the Under Secretary for Transportation, Departluent of Commerce.

January/September 1965.—Deputy Coordinator for International Aviation, Department of State.

1956-1965.—Budget Examiner (Transportation programs) , Bureau of the

Budget.

1951-1954.—Department of the Interior; Social Security Administration.

Misoella/neous.—Junior Management Intern, Department of the Interior. Appointed by the President in 1966 as Member of the Advisory Board—National

Capital Transportation Agency.

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Mr. SrrroN. Mr. Chairman, if I may just presume on the committee

for a few moments and elaborate on my background for the information of the committee.

I would like first to say that I am honored to be here before the

committee. I have spent the past 15 years working in the Government,

primarily in transportation, in the Bureau of the Budget, in the State

Department, and the Department of Commerce and, lately as the

record shows, as the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Transportation.

I have been concerned about the general problems of transportation

as well as the problems of urban transportation. I have watched the

increasing financial difficulties of our cities, the decline of rail and bus

patronage—the obsolescence of equipment and the other difficulties

that the carriers have faced as well as the growing concern in the Department of Transportation for the increasing delays and congestion

on the highways.

I think that many committees, this committee particularly, if I may

presume to say so, have done an outstanding job in promoting the

urban mass transportation program. The Urban Mass Transportation

Act of 1964 which, if I am confirmed, I will be called upon to administer, is a fine piece of legislation. It is very flexible and I think it provides good tools for dealing with some of the problems. I can assure

the committee that I will work diligently to attain the paramount congressional objectives of working out solutions to our urban problems.

It is clear that our urban problems and the problems of urban transportation are tied together very closely.

I believe it is appropriate to emphasize the past concern of the

Department of Transportation in regard to urban transportation, and

to restate the views which the Secretary and others in the Department

have enunciated in this area.

I think that the Secretary has pointed out before that transportation

is a service for broader community goals and that it is not an end in

itself. It must be considered as part of a system particularly in urban

areas, and without this systems approach it will be very difficult to provide the types of services that people and city development will need

in the future.

I think that the Department has worked very diligently to attempt

to gear transport development to comprehensive community development. It is a very difficult task and it is a very complex subject, but

I think that the committee will share the view that unless we have a

comprehensive approach to our city problems, it will be extremely

difficult to solve any of these problems.

The Department is organized among its operating administrations

on a modal basis. However, the Secretary and his top staff look at

transportation on a functional basis. This permits the integration of

all modes of transportation and I think it provides an opportunity

over the long term to get the benefits of all modes.

I think that the implications of the reorganization plan which

brought the urban mass transportation program into the Department,

of Transportation are significant in two respects: One—and the President pointed this out in transmitting the urban mass transportation

reorganization plan—is that Federal programs of assistance to urban

transportation are consolidated into one agency permitting us to look
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at them systematically. It provides one focal point to Which urban

transportation systems can come to seek assistance and aid, and I

think it assures the development of systems compatible with broad

urban goals.

The second is the strengthening of the Department of Housing

and Urban Development's ability to assure that urban transportation

systems are developed and grow as an integral component of comprehensive urban growth.

As of yesterday, an agreement was signed by the Secretary of

Transportation and the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development getting out the cooperative working relationships between the

two agencies. I think it is a large and constructive step in bringing

tOgether these two Departments' programs in the area of urban development.

Copies of these agreements will be made available when they are

printed. I don't have one with me but I thought the committee would

be interested in this and there will be an announcement about it within

the next day or two.

In terms of where we go from here, it is difficult for me to give more

than general observaticins about my own feelings about the program.

I am familiar with it in general. I am not familiar with the details of

the program since it has only been in the Department a short time.

I would like to make two points to the committee. First, we will work

closely with HUD in making certain that the programs serve the 

broader social goals of our cities, which in my view is the paramount

objective of this program.

Secondly, I think one of the essential features of this program is to

assure that we preserve essential public transport services that are

basic to our social and economic development. There is a minimal

level of service below which we should not permit public transportation

to fall in urban areas. This is necessary in order to provide transportation for the nonauto driver, for the infirm, the aged, and the young,

and for those families and individuals who cannot afford private

transportation.

An important part of the program which I hope to emphasize, is

research and development. It seems to me that this offers the greatest

hope for providing economic and efficient service over the long term.

It is not enough just to provide capital support for existing modes.

think it is essential that we provide the research and demonstrations

that will permit us to seek out new technologies to serve our complex

and growing urban society.

It is also important, I believe, to work closely with the other

agencies in the Department of Transportation as well as those of

Housing and Urban Development to provide for maximum use, for

example, of highway networks in creating more efficient systems of

public transportation, particularly with respect to bus transportation.

Also, I think we have to give increasing emphasis to the problems of

airport accessibility.

I think that what all this really means is that the Department has

to focus all its resources upon the problems of urban transportation

and I can assure you that the Secretary and others in the Department

are firmly behind this.
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I appreciate the time you have allowed me to take to make these

comments, Mr. Chairman, and I am prepared to answer any questions

that you or Senator Williams would like to ask.

The CHAIRMAN. I will call on Senator Williams. He is the tower

of strength of this committee on mass transit. He has carried it

through from the beginning. Senator Williams.

Senator WILLIAMS. Well, I appreciate that comment, Mr. Chairman. Maybe I initiated the idea that got the program started, but

your efforts were invaluable in passing it in the Senate.

The CHAIRMAN. Well, we are glad to have you.

Senator WILLIAMS. I had a very delightful and indeed productive

discussion with Mr. Sitton yesterday in my office concerning urban

mass transit. I feel that he is the man for the job, and that his appointshould be confirmed.

The CHAIRMAN. Very well. Thank you very much, Mr. Sitton. I

wish you great success in your job.

Mr. SrrroN. Thank you, Senators.

The CHAIRMAN. If that is all the business we have today, this meeting stands adjourned.

(The committee was adjourned at 10:23 a.m.)

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