IV 

110TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 936 

Honoring the 200th anniversary of the Gallatin Report on Roads and Canals, 

celebrating the national unity the Gallatin Report engendered, and recognizing the vast contributions that national planning efforts have provided 

to the United States. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 23, 2008 

Mr. BLUMENAUER (for himself, Mr. OBERSTAR, Mr. DEFAZIO, Mr. WALSH

of New York, Mr. PETRI, and Mr. FARR) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 

RESOLUTION 

Honoring the 200th anniversary of the Gallatin Report on 

Roads and Canals, celebrating the national unity the 

Gallatin Report engendered, and recognizing the vast 

contributions that national planning efforts have provided 

to the United States. 

Whereas President Thomas Jefferson commissioned his Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin to provide a new 

vision for transportation that would unite the young Republic; 

Whereas 2008 marks the bicentennial of the report that Secretary Gallatin presented to President Jefferson, which 

proposed transportation improvements not as ends in 


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themselves but as means to further national unity, which 

was part of the promise of the American Revolution, as 

James Madison, writing in The Federalist No. 14, emphasized, ‘‘Let it be remarked . . . that the intercourse 

throughout the Union will be facilitated by new improvements. Roads will everywhere be shortened, and kept in 

better order; accommodations for travelers will be multiplied and meliorated; an interior navigation on our eastern side will be opened throughout, or nearly throughout, 

the whole extent of the 13 States’’, and whose words 

have served as a worthy reminder of the needs for transportation infrastructure since that time; 

Whereas Gallatin incorporated the legacy Benjamin Franklin 

bequeathed to the country through his improvements to 

the Postal Service, including Franklin’s route surveys, his 

placement of milestones on principle roads, and his development of shorter transportation routes; 

Whereas the United States, as a result of Gallatin’s legacy, 

has a record of successful infrastructure partnerships, including— 

(1) the partnerships that built the Erie Canal, which 

vastly reduced transportation costs to the interior; 

(2) the partnerships that built the transcontinental 

railway, which united the country; 

(3) the partnerships that built transit projects 

across the country that promote freedom and opportunity; 

(4) the partnerships that built the National Highway 

System, which fostered interstate commerce, national 

unity, and broke down barriers between the States; and 

(5) the partnerships that formed the Tennessee Valley Authority, devised by President Theodore Roosevelt 


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as a ‘‘corporation clothed with the power of government 

but possessed of the flexibility and initiative of a private 

enterprise’’, which brought electricity, conservation planning, and opportunity for thousands in the Tennessee 

Valley and across the country; 

Whereas any national planning endeavor, to be regarded as 

a success, must address and reconcile the needs of different regions of the country; 

Whereas the genius of the Gallatin plan was its alignment of 

the hopes of the Nation with the opportunities presented 

by access to new markets, populations, and territories; 

Whereas the United States currently faces new challenges financing the infrastructure necessary for the future economic needs of the country; and 

Whereas America must have a plan for its future if it is to 

succeed in a world of increasing international competition: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the United States House of Rep2 resentatives— 

3 (1) reaffirms the goals and ideals that formed 

4 the impetus for Gallatin’s national plan two hundred 

5 years ago; 

6 (2) calls on the Federal Government, States, lo7 calities, schools, nonprofit organizations, businesses, 

8 and the citizens of the United States to mark this 

9 important anniversary by recalling the important 

10 legacy of public investment in infrastructure that 


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1 connects and enhances the economies, communica2 tions, and communities of our several States; and 

3 (3) supports the creation of a new national plan 

4 to align the demands for economic development with 

5 the resources of the Nation. 

Æ 


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