Franklin D. Roosevelt

Message to Congress on Highways and Roads.

November 27, 1937

To the Congress:

By the Act of June 16, 1936, the Congress authorized appropriations totaling $216,500,000, for each of the fiscal years 1938 and 1939, for Federal-aid highways, secondary or feeder roads, elimination of grade crossings, forest highways, roads and trails, and highways across public lands, to be administered by the Department of Agriculture. This Act also authorized appropriations totaling $21,500,000, for each of the fiscal years 1938 and 1939, for roads and trails within national parks, for parkways to give access to national parks and form connecting sections of a national parkway plan, and for Indian reservation roads, to be administered by the Department of the Interior. Under the first category there has been appropriated to date on account of the authorizations for the fiscal year 1938 a total of $25,500,000 and under 'the second category a total of $13,500,000, or a grand total of $38,000,000 leaving $200,000,000 still to be appropriated for that fiscal year. To meet obligations under this $200,000,000 of outstanding authorizations, I propose to include an estimate of appropriation of approximately $100,000,000 in the Budget for the fiscal year 1939, with the balance to be provided for 1940. This takes care of the authorizations for the fiscal year 1938 and leaves for consideration the authorizations of $238,000,000 for the fiscal year 1939.

In view of the large amounts which have been contributed by the Federal Government, particularly during the past five years, for the construction of public roads, and because of the necessity for taking definite steps to reduce expenditures for the purpose of securing a balanced Budget, I recommend that the Congress adopt the following policies:

1. Provide for the cancellation of the 1939 authorizations prior to January 1, 1938, by which date the Secretary of Agriculture is required to apportion to the various States $214,000,000 of such authorizations.

2. Limit to not more than $125,000,000 per annum all public roads authorizations for the fiscal year of 1940 and for each of the next few succeeding years.

Since the enactment of the first Federal-Aid Highway Act in 1916, there has been appropriated for public highways, including allotments from emergency appropriations, more than$3, 100,000,000, of which amount $1,490,000,000 has been made available during the last five years. This annual average for the past five years of $298,000,000 contrasts with an annual average of less than $100,000,000 for the five-year period preceding the depression.

There is another provision of the existing law relating to public roads which should receive consideration in this connection. The Secretary of Agriculture is required to apportion to the States the annual amount authorized for appropriation, and to approve projects of proposed State expenditures thereunder which shall constitute contractual obligations of the Federal Government regardless of the availability of appropriations for their payment and of the fiscal outlook of the Treasury. This mandatory provision completely ties the hands of the Executive as to the amount of road funds to be included in the Budget for any fiscal year. While I do not object to the apportionment among the States of such amounts as may be authorized for appropriation, I do most strenuously object to the mandatory incurrence of obligations by the Federal Government under such apportionments without regard to its ability to finance them from its revenues. I, therefore, recommend that the Congress take the necessary action permanently to eliminate this provision of our public roads law.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, Message to Congress on Highways and Roads. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/209029

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