[Federal Register Volume 76, Number 97 (Thursday, May 19, 2011)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 29135-29136]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2011-12547]


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  Federal Register / Vol. 76, No. 97 / Thursday, May 19, 2011 / 
Presidential Documents  

[[Page 29135]]


                Proclamation 8675 of May 13, 2011

                
National Defense Transportation Day and National 
                Transportation Week, 2011

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                America has long depended on a robust and reliable 
                transportation network to support our drive towards 
                lasting security and prosperity. Our highways, 
                railroads, ports, and airways allow us to move around 
                our country quickly and efficiently. Effective 
                transportation systems have helped our economy grow, 
                our first responders save lives, and our Armed Forces 
                mobilize.

                The freedom of movement created by America's 
                transportation infrastructure facilitates our Nation's 
                economic vitality. Our ability to travel safely enables 
                us to trade with our neighbors and visit our friends 
                and family. It provides Americans from every corner of 
                our country access to the first-rate products and 
                services that define our economy, increasing the 
                productivity of our people and our land. Our 
                transportation system also permits our military to move 
                personnel and supplies at a moment's notice. The 
                ability to deploy rapidly empowers our men and women in 
                uniform to respond to crises or natural disasters at 
                home and abroad with urgency.

                Maintaining the transportation networks that earlier 
                generations bequeathed to us is a challenge, and we 
                must do more than preserve the status quo. We need to 
                develop a 21st-century transportation network--one that 
                is safer, more energy-efficient, more environmentally 
                sustainable, and offers more transportation choices to 
                our citizens than the one we inherited.

                As we celebrate the legacy of our Nation's 
                transportation arteries, we recognize the world is now 
                more connected and more competitive than ever before. 
                New companies around the world look for the fastest and 
                most reliable ways to move people and goods. To attract 
                new businesses to our shores, we must rebuild crumbling 
                roads and bridges and continue to invest in the 
                modernization of our infrastructure. We must repair our 
                highways, reengineer our railroads into high-speed rail 
                networks, and ready ourselves for the next 
                revolutionary breakthroughs in transportation 
                technology. We must provide increased transportation 
                options that cut commuting time, ease traffic 
                congestion, reduce oil consumption, lower greenhouse 
                gas emissions, and expand access to job opportunities 
                and housing that American families can afford. 
                Together, we can continue the work started by the 
                American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to maintain a 
                world-class logistics network, create new jobs, and win 
                the future for our children.

                In recognition of the importance of our Nation's 
                transportation infrastructure, and of the men and women 
                who build, maintain, and utilize it, the 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, as amended (36 U.S.C. 
                133), that the week during which that Friday falls be 
                designated as ``National Transportation Week.''

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the 
                United States of America, do hereby proclaim Friday, 
                May 20, 2011, as National Defense Transportation Day 
                and May 15 through May 21, 2011, as National 
                Transportation Week. I call upon all Americans to 
                recognize the importance of

[[Page 29136]]

                our Nation's transportation infrastructure and to 
                acknowledge the contributions of those who build, 
                operate, and maintain it.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                thirteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand eleven, and of the Independence of the United 
                States of America the two hundred and thirty-fifth.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

[FR Doc. 2011-12547
Filed 5-18-11; 11:15 am]
Billing code 3195-W1-P