To amend title 23, United States Code, with respect to United States Route 78 in Mississippi, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for yielding. I too rise in support of H.R. 4268.

In Mississippi, U.S. Highway 78 cuts diagonally through the foothills of the Appalachians to Memphis. This is the highway that our most famous native son, Elvis Presley, took as he made his way from his hometown and my hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi, to find his way to Sun Studio in Memphis.

While there were others whose careers may not nearly have been so visible, they made the same road. People came home from World War II, and they felt their only option in Mississippi was to leave to find a better way of life for their families, so they made their way to Memphis and then north.

For the three decades following the end of World War II, they settled in and around the Great Lakes. There were small towns in Illinois and Wisconsin that had neighborhoods literally dotted with families from Mississippi, neighborhoods in Waukegan and Zion, Aurora and Kenosha and Racine; and you go on the streets, and you find people from Baldwyn and Marietta, Mantachie and Booneville.

In recent years, we have had a renaissance of advanced manufacturing in Mississippi. This growth has been driven by regional cooperation among our local leaders, tough decisions that were made at the State level, but it has been primarily driven by the strong work ethic of those same people from Appalachia.

In fact, a few months ago, I was visiting in one of the advanced manufacturing facilities involved in automobile manufacturing parts, talking to a man in Mantachie. He smiled, and he said: The great news about this job is I got to come home.

In order to accommodate all this new growth, we found it important to upgrade U.S. Highway 78 and make it Interstate 22. A lot of work has been done by Federal, State, and local stakeholders.

We are about ready to make that transition, but there is one more

change that needs to be completed. A small tweak in the law is necessary.

While advanced manufacturing is a very important part of our economy, agriculture is still a very important part of our economy as well.

Under the existing law, ag products on the way to the market have to obtain a permit that they can carry an additional 5 percent weight on U.S. Highway 78. In the absence of that bill, that permit would not be available.

To make it clear, this bill is no loss, no gain. The roadway that is in use today is the exact same roadway that will be used as Interstate 22. The mile markers, as you have heard, are specified in the legislation. There is not one additional vehicle that can legally travel this road under this law that would be able to do so under a new law.

That is why I urge passage of this bill. I want to thank the ranking member, I want to thank the chairman, and I also want to thank the senior member of the Mississippi delegation for his cooperation in making this possible.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4268) to amend title 23, United States Code, with respect to United States Route 78 in Mississippi, and for other purposes.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill before us.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in support of H.R. 4268, a bill to amend title 23, United States Code, with respect to United States Route 78 in Mississippi, and for other purposes.

H.R. 4268 allows commercial vehicles currently operating on United States Route 78 in Mississippi, between mile marker zero and mile marker 113, to continue to operate after that segment is designated as part of the interstate highway system.

This bill is similar to H.R. 2353, a bill which I sponsored, that provides a similar allowance for commercial vehicles operating currently on Highway 41 in the State of Wisconsin. That bill passed the House by voice vote on July 22, 2013.

I urge all of my colleagues to support H.R. 4268. It allows for commerce to continue in Mississippi in an orderly way. It would not involve any new use of the roads.

The only thing that would change is the designation of the highway from U.S. to interstate. Otherwise, people that had special permits to operate or were operating under State law on the previous highway would continue operating. No new use would be permitted.

I urge my colleagues to support this limited, basically technical piece of legislation.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to my colleague from Mississippi (Mr. Nunnelee).

Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to support the bill before us, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I too rise in support of H.R. 4268. Very simply put, this is a State highway that already has an exemption to the weight limits pursuant to State law. They are changing the State highway into an interstate highway, therefore, requiring us to provide a waiver for this very simple item.

As the gentleman before me said, it is a noncontroversial item, but it is a necessary step that we take.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.