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The Secretary is directed to require safety information on tire labels, to establish within two years a quality grading system, and to seek elimination of deceptive and confusing tire nomenclature and marketing practices.

He is to study the need for a federal research project on traffic safety.

He is to expand the National Driver Register to include the names of individuals reported to him by the States as having been denied drivers' licenses.

The bill authorizes appropriations as follows: for the
vehicle standards function, $11 million for fiscal '67,
$17 million for fiscal '68 and $23 million for fiscal
'69. It authorizes $2.9 million in '67 and $1.45 million
each in '68 and '69 for tire safety functions. There is
$3 million for the research studies.

S.3052-Highway Safety Act of 1966

Sponsored by Senators Randolph and Cooper

Summary: The bill authorizes the Secretary of Commerce

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To assist States in carrying out comprehensive highway safety programs.

Provides that at least 40% of the federal safety grants to states must be expended by local subdivisions in carrying out local programs related to the statewide program.

Authorizes the Secretary to conduct highway safety research projects through federal agencies or by grants.

Establishes a National Highway Safety Advisory committee, composed of the Secretary or his designate as chairman, the Federal

Highway administrator, and 29 members appointed by the President. Of the 29, four may be federal officials, and the remainder must be selected from representatives or State and local governments and public and private interests and experts in the field.

The bill authorizes general fund appropriations for the highway safety program of $67 million in fiscal '67, $100 million each in '68 and '69. It authorizes general fund appropriations for research of $10 million in '67, $20 million in '68 and $25 million in '69.

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A PROPOSAL FOR A CABINET-LEVEL DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION CONSOLIDATING VARIOUS EXISTING TRANSPORTATION AGENCIES

MARCH 2, 1966.-Referred to the Committee on the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed

To the Congress of the United States:

Two centuries ago the American Nation came into being. Thirteen sparsely populated colonies, strung out along the Atlantic seaboard for 1,300 miles, joined their separate wills in a common endeavor.

Three bonds united them.

There was the cultural bond of a single language.

There was the moral bond of a thirst for liberty and democratic government.

There was the physical bond of a few roads and rivers, by which the citizens of the colonies engaged in peaceful commerce..

Two centuries later the language is the same. The thirst for liberty and democracy endures.

The physical bond that tenuous skein of rough trails and primitive roads has become a powerful network on which the prosperity and convenience of our society depend.

In a nation that spans a continent, transportation is the web of union.

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THE GROWTH OF OUR TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM

It is not necessary to look back to the 1760's to chronicle the astonishing growth of American transportation.

Twenty years ago there were 31 million motor vehicles in the United States. Today there are 90 million. By 1975 there will be nearly 120 million.

Twenty years ago there were 1.5 million miles of paved roads and streets in the United States. Today this figure has almost doubled. Twenty years ago there were 38,000 private and commercial aircraft. Today there are more than 97,000.

Twenty years ago commercial airlines flew 209 million miles. Last year they flew 1 billion miles.

Twenty-five years ago American transportation moved 619 billion ton-miles of cargo. In 1964, 1.5 trillion ton-miles were moved. The manufacturing of transportation equipment has kept pace. It has tripled since 1947. Last year $4.5 billion was spent for new transportation plant and equipment.

Transportation is one of America's largest employers. There are— 737,000 railroad employees;

270,000 local and interurban workers;

230,000 in air transport; and

almost a million men and women in motor transport and storage.

Together with pipeline and water transportation employees, the total number of men and women who earn their livelihoods by moving people and goods is well over 21⁄2 million.

The Federal Government supports or regulates almost every means of transportation. Last year alone, more than $5 billion in Federal funds were invested in transportation-in highway construction, in river and harbor development, in airway operation and airport construction, in maritime subsidies. The Government owns 1,500 of the Nation's 2,500 oceangoing cargo vessels.

Our transportation system-the descendant of the horse-drawn coaches and sailing ships of colonial times-accounts for $1 in every $6 in the American economy. In 1965, that amounted to $120 billion-a sum greater than the gross national product of this Nation in 1940.

SHORTCOMINGS OF OUR SYSTEM

Vital as it is, mammoth and complex as it has become, the American transportation system is not good enough.

It is not good enough when it offers nearly a mile of street or road for every square mile of land-and yet provides no relief from timeconsuming, frustrating, and wasteful congestion.

It is not good enough when it produces sleek and efficient jet aircraft and yet cannot move passengers to and from airports in the time it takes those aircraft to fly hundreds of miles.

It is not good enough when it builds superhighways for supercharged automobiles-and yet cannot find a way to prevent 50,000 highway deaths this year.

It is not good enough when public and private investors pour $15 million into a large, high-speed ship-only to watch it remain idle in port for days before it is loaded.

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