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2 Bureau to state that the Federal Government could contribute to the important improvements required by authorizing the designation of such a system by joint action of the Federal Government and the States, the system to be limited to 1 percent of the country’s rural road mileage, with appropriate urban connections. The Bureau further proposed, in the report (p. 122), that—

In view of the predominant national importance of such a system, the Federal Government could reasonably contribute to its construction in a proportion materially larger than that in which it contributes under the Federal Highway Act * * *.

Interregional highways report

For a further study of the recommendations of the Bureau, the President on April 14, 1941, appointed a committee, known as the National Interregional Highway Committee, headed by the Commissioner of Public Roads, to investigate the need for a limited system of highways to improve the facilities then available for interregional transportation. Under the general direction of this committee the Bureau of Public Roads continued its investigations that led to the recommendations of the 1939 report and prepared the report Interregional Highways which the President transmitted to the Congress on January 12, 1944.

Since the Commissioner of Public Roads served as Chairman of the Committee, the report also satisfied the requirement of the 78th Congress which, by Public Law 146 (57 Stat. 560), authorized and directed the Commissioner to survey the need for a system of express highways throughout the United States, the number of such highways needed, the approximate routes which they should follow, and the approximate cost of construction.

This report (p. 133) reiterated the importance of an interregional system of highways and again recommended that its immediate designation be authorized by the Congress. The committee strongly recommended—


 * * * prompt beginning of construction on the system at the end of the war and prosecution of such construction at the rate indicated by an annual expenditure of $750 million.

The interstate system

Influenced by the recommendations of the committee report, the Congress in section 7 of the Federal-aid Highway Act of 1944 (58 Stat. 838), authorized the designation of a National System of Interstate Highways. The act stated:

. 7. There shall be designated within the continental United States a National System of Interstate Highways not exceeding forty thousand miles in total extent so located as to connect by routes, as direct as practicable, the principal metropolitan areas, cities, and industrial centers, to serve the national defense, and to connect at suitable border points with routes of continental importance in the Dominion of Canada and the Republic of Mexico. The routes of the National System of Interstate Highways shall be selected by joint action of the State highway departments of each State and the adjoining States, as provided by the Federal Highway Act of November 9, 1921, for the selection of the Federal-aid system. All highways or routes included in the National System of Interstate Highways as finally approved, if not already included in the Federal-aid highway system, shall be added to said system without regard to any mileage limitation.

No funds were earmarked for the acceleration of the improvement of the system nor did the Federal Government then accept responsi-