Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944

Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944
78th United States Congress
Citation	Pub. L. No. 78-521; 58 Stat. 838; 23 U.S. Code 61-63; 151; 157; 161
Enacted by	Congress
Date enacted	December 12, 1944
Date signed	December 20, 1944
Legislative history
Bill	S. 2105
Related legislation
Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956; Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1973
Summary
Created but did not fund Interstate Highway System; created and funded urban and secondary/feeder road funding program

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 (Pub. L. No. 78-521; 58 Stat. 838) is legislation enacted by the United States Congress and signed into law on December 20, 1944, which established a 50-50 formula for subsidizing the construction of national highways and secondary (or "feeder") roads. The legislation established a National System of Interstate Highways, and required the Public Roads Administration to establish construction and operational standards for the Interstate Highway System.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt saw highways as both essential to national defense and the economy, as well as a means of putting unemployed people to work. On April 14, 1941, Roosevelt appointed a National Interregional Highway Committee to study the need for a limited system of national inter-state highways. The committee's report, Interregional Highways, released on January 14, 1943, recommended constructing a 40,000 miles (64,000 km) interstate highway system.

Interregional Highways prompted Congress to act. Although the financial exigencies and materials shortages of World War II would not permit construction of an interstate highway system, post-war planning was at the top of the legislative agenda. The highway bill was among the first pieces of legislation Roosevelt submitted to Congress in January 1944. The Senate Committee on Roads amended the Roosevelt bill substantially. It reduced total federal funding for highways to $450 million a year from $650 million a year; required a 50 percent funding match from states, instead of the proposed 40 percent; and set funding for urban roads and secondary/feeder roads at $125 million a year each (leaving $200 million for the general federal aid program). The House of Representatives passed the legislation on November 29, 1944, after increasing funding for the general federal aid to $225 million a year and secondary/feeder roads to $150 million a year. (Another $173.25 million would be spent building roads in national parks, national forest, and on Native American reservations. This provision was non-controversial in both the Senate and House.) A House-Senate conference committee approved the House-passed version of the bill. On December 12, the House and Senate both passed the report of the conference committee, sending the legislation to President Roosevelt. Roosevelt signed the legislation into law on December 20, 1944.

The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1944 covered federal spending on highways "after the war", which (after World War II ended in August 1945) meant spending in fiscal 1946, 1947, and 1948. Among the act's provisions were: