June 29
| 1956 | President Dwight D. Eisenhower, on his last day at Walter Reed Army Hospital following surgery on June 9 for ileitis, signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, ushering in the Interstate era. Title I increases the Interstate System to 41,000 miles (from 40,000 miles authorized by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944) and authorizes $25 billion over the period 1957-1969 as the Federal share (90 percent) of the cost of construction. Title II, the Highway Revenue Act of 1956, establishes the Highway Trust Fund and provides that the highway program must operate on a pay-as-you-go basis. Secretary of Commerce Sinclair Weeks tells reporters $1.125 billion would be allocated to the States immediately for "the greatest public works program in the history of the world." The President, he says, "was highly pleased." | |
| 1961 | President John F. Kennedy signs the Federal-Aid Highway Act, which increases Interstate authorizations. It revises the existing schedule of highway-user excise taxes and makes permanent the temporary gas tax of 4 cents per gallon approved by the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1959. These changes provide the sound financial footing needed to complete the Interstate System.
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| 1977 | The FHWA Regulation Reduction Red Tape Task Force presents its study and recommendations to Administrator William Cox, Deputy Administrator Karl Bowers, and Executive Director Lester Lamm. |
