1978: NOAA announces gender-neutral hurricane naming system
Federal News Network presents a daily update of important moments in the history of the U.S. government.
On this day in 1956, Congress approved the Federal Highway Act, which allocated more than $30 billion for the construction of some 41,000 miles of interstate highways. It was the largest public construction project in U.S. history at that point. Several competing bills went through Congress before then, and that year President Dwight D. Eisenhower again called in his State of the Union address for a “modern, interstate highway system.” The Federal Highway Act of 1956 provided for a 65,000-kilometer national system of interstate and defense highways to be built over 13 years, with the federal government paying for 90 percent, or $24.8 billion. To raise funds for the project, Congress would increase the gas tax from 2 cents per gallon to 3 cents per gallon and impose a series of other highway user tax changes. On June 26, 1956, both houses approved the bill and three days the president signed it into law.
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