Haley Stevens: “the Senator is quite generous in his suggestion, but I have to say that we heard on April 18 of this year from the…”

“the Senator is quite generous in his suggestion, but I have to say that we heard on April 18 of this year from the Department of Transportation the following: The Department of Transportation has not formulated a position regarding the future of LORAN. It is our hope, however, that it will be possible, consistent with the Federal Radionavigation Plan, for the administration to announce a final, fully considered decision before the end of the calendar year. That decision should be made collaboratively with due regard for the mandates in NSPD 39 relating the identification of a backup for GPS. In terms of where we live on the Pacific, the problem is we appropriated the money for modernization of LORAN but, unfortunately, it was improved in areas where it wasn't needed anymore, and in the area where it is still needed, it was not. We are in a situation now where our people still rely upon LORAN. We were told that the Department of Transportation did not participate in this study. We now know that the Department of Transportation says that from a cost-benefit analysis, the whole system is not justified. That may well be. That may well be. All we are asking for is this analysis now to be made of the system, and the merits of maintaining LORAN as a backup navigational aid and the benefits of using it in conjunction with the Global Positioning System. We believe that in areas where it doesn't work continually, GPS ought to be backed up by LORAN and vice versa.…”