Recognizing the 50th Anniversary
of the Interstate Highway System
 
by
Congressman Jerry Moran
 
June 13, 2006
 

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the resolution. My particular interest in this legislation, in honoring the interstate transportation system, is the gentleman that has been mentioned in both remarks, and that is President Eisenhower, a fellow Kansan, and that historic moment on June 29, 1956, when our President initiated the interstate highway system, is one that we memorialize in Kansas. We are very much a transportation-dependent State. We are land-locked in the middle of the country and roads and highways that lead elsewhere are lawfully important to us, particularly in the sense of commerce and moving industrial goods and agricultural commodities to market.

But President Eisenhower, in his life and his involvement in the interstate system, is memorialized in Abilene, Kansas, his hometown, at the Eisenhower Center where photographs of the interstate construction are on display.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this afternoon just to again remark about this remarkable individual, this former general, this former President of the United States, who had the foresight as a military leader and commander to bring the country together in regard to a transportation system that is so important to us today.

So as a Kansan, I am here to pay tribute not only to the interstate system, but to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. I thank the committee and the gentleman for yielding me the time and for bringing this occasion to the House floor today. I urge my colleagues to support this historic occurrence that matters so much to Kansas and Americans in 2006, 50 years later.

 
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