Proclamation 4433—National Defense Transportation Day and National Transportation Week, 1976

The economic prosperity of the United States and the maintenance of our national defense depend in large measure on our ability to move goods and people.

The Nation's transportation network is one of our greatest physical assets. We have more than 25,000 miles of inland waterways, 200,000 miles of railroads, four million miles of streets and highways, and 12,500 airports. 

As we look to the future, our transportation systems must meet the changing needs and demands of our society. We need to continue the decentralization of authority and increase the flexibility needed by State and local governments to meet their transportation problems. The Federal government must establish economic and regulatory policies which will promote increased efficiency and healthy competition, foster new technologies and energy conservation, and provide lower cost service to the consumer and shipper.

In recognition of the importance of our transportation system, the Congress has requested the President to proclaim annually the third Friday in May as National Defense Transportation Day, and the week in which that Friday falls as National Transportation Week (71 Stat. 30; 36 U.S.C. 160; 76 Stet. 69; 36 U.S.C. 166)

Now, Therefore, I, Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate Friday, May 21, 1976, as National Defense Transportation Day, and the week beginning May 16, 1976, as National Transportation Week.

I urge the Governors of our States and other appropriate officials, organizations concerned with transportation, and the people of the United States to join with the Department of Transportation in observing this week.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred seventy-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundredth.

GERALD R. FORD