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Statement by the President Upon Signing the Act Providing for a Highway Bridge Across Lake Texoma.
I HAVE TODAY signed S. 1318, "To modify the project for the Denison Reservoir on Red River in Texas and Oklahoma in order to provide for a highway bridge across Lake Texoma."
Although the United States is under no legal obligation to build this bridge, there is some equity in having the United States assume part of the costs. The war-caused denial of materials to the States of Oklahoma and Texas made it impossible for the two States to construct the bridge prior to the flooding of the lake by the United States. With the lake now flooded, extra costs of construction will have to be incurred.
However, the war-caused denial of materials, which prevented the building of the bridge before the flooding of the reservoir, was not a factor in 1946 and the years following, and I am at a loss to understand why action on the bridge has been so long delayed. During this period construction costs were increasing rapidly, and under the bill all of these increased costs are assigned to the United States. It seems to me that at the very most, the United States should not have to bear more than the extra costs resulting from flooding. I therefore recommend that the Congress reassess the relative shares assigned by the bill and increase the requirement for local contributions before Federal appropriations are made available.
Note: As enacted, S. 1318 is Public Law 164, 84th Congress (69 Stat. 365).
Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President Upon Signing the Act Providing for a Highway Bridge Across Lake Texoma. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/233257