Presidential Document2023-10658
National Defense Transportation Day and National Transportation Week, 2023
Primary source
Metadata and text below are from the Federal Register, a public-domain U.S. government work. Always verify the official published version before relying on it for any legal matter.
Published
May 17, 2023
Signed
May 12, 2023
Issuing agencies
Executive Office of the President
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 88 Issue 95 (Wednesday, May 17, 2023)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 95 (Wednesday, May 17, 2023)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 31453-31455]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2023-10658]
Presidential Documents
Federal Register / Vol. 88 , No. 95 / Wednesday, May 17, 2023 /
Presidential Documents
___________________________________________________________________
Title 3--
The President
[[Page 31453]]
Proclamation 10577 of May 12, 2023
National Defense Transportation Day and National
Transportation Week, 2023
By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation
To have the world's strongest military and leading
economy, the United States must have the world's best
transportation system. And to achieve that, we must
prepare and equip the world's best workforce to build
it. Today and this week, we celebrate the American
workers who build our infrastructure, power our
economy, bolster our national security, and are the
backbone of this Nation. We also recommit to investing
in our Nation's infrastructure and strengthening
critical supply chains.
National Defense Transportation Day dates back to 1957,
a year after President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the
landmark Federal-Aid Highway Act. This law helped build
America's interstate highway system, which is critical
to our national security. In the years since, we have
seen how modern transportation makes it possible to
deploy service members quickly and to ship defense
supplies and equipment efficiently. It also means first
responders can act fast when a crisis occurs.
The interstate highway system also proved vital to our
national prosperity--connecting small towns with big
cities, allowing goods to ship to all corners of the
country and world, and turning our infrastructure into
the envy of the globe. But gradually, we stopped
investing in our infrastructure. As we allowed the
quality of our roads, bridges, ports, and railways to
deteriorate, so too did the reliability of America's
transportation system.
I took office determined to change that. I signed the
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law--a once-in-a-generation
investment in rebuilding America and putting Americans
across the country to work doing it. It is the most
significant investment in our infrastructure since
President Eisenhower. To date, we have already funded
more than 25,000 projects--upgrading roads, bridges,
and tunnels from California to Ohio to New York;
renovating major airports from Massachusetts to Georgia
to Oregon; and upgrading our rail infrastructure on the
Northeast Corridor, bringing world-class rail to new
corners of the country. We are also paving new highways
so trucks filled with goods can get to their
destinations faster and deepening channels so ships can
move in and out of harbors more efficiently.
Additionally, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is the
largest investment in public transit in the history of
our country. It improves subways and commuter rail in
some of the busiest travel corridors in America, easing
traffic congestion and making it easier for people to
get where they need to go. Thanks to this law, we will
replace thousands of diesel school buses with electric
buses so our kids do not have to inhale diesel exhaust
fumes, which can make them sick. And we are helping
local governments retrofit subway stations so people
who need an elevator or ramp can reliably access our
rail systems. All told, these actions will improve
transit for millions of Americans while reducing
emissions.
These investments are part of our mission to build a
clean energy future. As part of that effort, we are
creating a national network of electric vehicle
charging stations across America. In time, finding a
place to charge your
[[Page 31454]]
electric vehicle will be as easy as pulling into a gas
station. And our Inflation Reduction Act, the largest
investment ever made to tackle climate change, is
providing incentives for companies to electrify heavy-
duty vehicles and for consumers to buy electric cars
and fuel cell vehicles.
As we improve our transportation system, we must make
good on our promise that the workers who are designing,
building, and maintaining it are seeing the benefits.
Many of these new jobs in construction, trucking, and
the railroad industry will be union jobs with good pay
and good benefits, providing the breathing room
American families deserve. We are also investing in
workforce development; expanding Registered
Apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeship programs; and
spurring commitments from employers, unions, and
community-based organizations to invest in training and
apprenticeships. And we worked hand in hand with the
trucking industry to improve safety and job quality
through the Biden Trucking Action Plan.
Finally, we are working to rectify our Nation's past
mistakes when it comes to where and how we build new
infrastructure. Nearly six decades ago, the expansion
of the interstate highway system routed many highways
directly through Black and brown communities,
destroying entire neighborhoods or cutting them off
from economic opportunity. In response, my
Administration launched the Reconnecting Communities
Pilot Program--the first-ever Federal initiative to cap
highways and add green spaces in an effort to unify
neighborhoods that had been divided. Our goal is to
ensure that our investments reach places that have
historically been forgotten, opening doors of
opportunity and strengthening communities as cranes go
up and shovels dig into the ground.
On this National Defense Transportation Day and
throughout National Transportation Week, I am proud to
say that we are embarking on an infrastructure decade.
Our investments to create the world's best and safest
roads, bridges, railroads, ports, airports, and more
will make our economy and country stronger. And by
empowering America's workers--who in turn power our
national prosperity--we will continue to build an
economy from the middle out and bottom up, not the top
down. That is America at its best--reinventing,
rebuilding, and reimagining a future of boundless
possibilities.
In recognition of the ongoing contributions of our
Nation's transportation system and in honor of the
devoted professionals who work to sustain its tradition
of excellence, the United States Congress has
requested, by joint resolution approved May 16, 1957,
as amended (36 U.S.C. 120), that the President
designate the third Friday in May of each year as
``National Defense Transportation Day'' and, by joint
resolution approved May 14, 1962 (36 U.S.C. 133), that
the week in which that Friday falls be designated as
``National Transportation Week.''
NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of
the United States of America, do hereby proclaim
Friday, May 19, 2023, as National Defense
Transportation Day; and May 14 through May 20, 2023, as
National Transportation Week. I urge all Americans to
observe these occasions with appropriate ceremonies,
programs, and activities as we show our appreciation to
those who build and operate our Nation's transportation
systems.
[[Page 31455]]
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord two
thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the
United States of America the two hundred and forty-
seventh.
<GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT>
(Presidential Sig.)
[FR Doc. 2023-10658
Filed 5-16-23; 8:45 am]
Billing code 3395-F3-P
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</html>Indexed from Federal Register on May 17, 2023.
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