sibility as in the case of primary and secondary roads, or as a local government responsibility.
The Committee offers no suggestions as to how local governments may raise funds to do their share of the program. Present matching requirements are continued, credits for completed portions of the interstate system must be used on other roads, the assumption of major responsibility by the Federal Government for the interstate system releases corresponding amounts of State funds for other roads. Thus, there is both incentive and encouragement to State and local governments to accelerate their own programs. The Committee hopes and believes that all government units will participate and cooperate in this program designed to meet the needs of a growing America in which the highway system used daily by our people is an integral part of our way of life. In doing so, we shall further strengthen our system of government. to meet the President’s stated desire for “a cooperative alliance between Federal Government and the States so that local government * * * will be the manager of its own area.”
We are indeed a nation on wheels and we cannot permit these wheels to slow down. Our mass industries must have moving supply lines to feed raw materials into our factories and moving distribution lines to carry the finished product to store or home. Moreover, the hands which produce these goods and the services which make them useful must also move from home to factory to store to home.
Our highway system has helped to make this possible. We have been able to disperse our factories, our stores, our people; in short, to create a revolution in living habits. Our cities have spread into suburbs, dependent on the automobile for their existence. The automobile has restored a way of life in which the individual may live in a friendly neighborhood, it has brought city and country closer together, it has made us one country and a united people.
But, America continues to grow. Our highway plant must similarly grow if we are to maintain and increase our standard of living. There can be no serious question as to the need for a more adequate highway system. Only the cost and how it is to be met poses a problem.
The Committee realizes fully the necessity for the reduction and early elimination of the deficit in the annual budget, the reluctance of the Congress to increase the Federal debt limit, and the heavy tax burden already borne by our people. It also is sympathetic to “pay-as-you-go” financing. However, in this instance, the advantages of a modern, efficient national highway network to be completed in 10 years to meet the traffic demands to be reached a decade later, and with a minimum life of 30 years justifies its financing through a bond issue to be retired during the useful life of the system. The proposed financing need not be inflationary since the financing is spread over a 10-year period and the program can be planned to fit in with general governmental fiscal policy. Bonds will be retired on schedules from general revenue to be specifically appropriated by the Congress in which the anticipated increase in the gasoline tax alone suffices to service the bond issue while continuing a substantial Federal–State cooperative program on other roads.
The Committee has complete confidence in the continued growth of America. Its increasing population and expanding economy re-
