CONGRESSMAN JAMES COMER SUPPORT LETTER Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

House Oversight Chairman James Comer Issues Letter of Support for the East-West TransAmerica Corridor Kentucky’s 1st District Congressman is the third Member of Congress to send a Letter of Support, following Congressmen Hal Rogers and Mike Bost.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, MISSOURI — OCTOBER 9, 2026

TransAmerica Corridor, Inc. today announced today that it has received a Letter of Support from Congressman James Comer (KY-01), Chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. In the letter, dated October 9, 2026, Chairman Comer writes that the East-West TransAmerica Corridor “is congressionally designated as a federal High Priority Corridor.”

“During my time in Congress, I have worked with local officials to introduce and enact legislation authorizing upgrades to existing parkway routes in my district, known as interstate spurs or High Priority Future Interstate Corridors, which make up portions of the East-West TransAmerica Corridor route,” Comer wrote. “As you know, this route is vital to interstate commerce, and I am confident further modernization of the segments of this corridor would aid in bringing further economic vitality, increased roadway safety, and lower congestion.”

“Chairman Comer’s letter affirms that the East-West TransAmerica Corridor is a congressionally designated federal High Priority Corridor,” said Robert Spurlock, President & Executive Director of TransAmerica Corridor, Inc. “This is the I-66 Corridor. Kentucky studied it as the I-66 Southern Kentucky Corridor, and southern Illinois studied it in 2014 and 2015 as the 66 Corridor Study. The highway upgrades Congressman Comer has worked to authorize in Kentucky’s 1st District are part of completing it.”

Chairman Comer’s letter is the third TransAmerica Corridor, Inc. has received from a Member of Congress. Congressman Hal Rogers (KY-05), Dean of the House, was the first to provide a Letter of Support, on August 28, 2026. “Monumental transportation projects, like I-66, are the seeds we plant for a brighter future in America,” Rogers wrote. Congressman Mike Bost (IL-12), a member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, followed on September 3, 2026. His letter cites “a route from I-24 at Metropolis to I-55 at Cape Girardeau, continuing along US-60 from Van Buren to Springfield, Missouri.”

With three congressional letters in hand, the bigger picture is coming into view. The route’s legislative intent is I-55 at Cape Girardeau, across southern Illinois to I-24 at Metropolis, then into Kentucky at Paducah, sharing a common corridor with I-24 and I-69 until Eddyville, then down to Hopkinsville. That is consistent with the statutory route description set out by Congress, which runs “to Bowling Green, Hopkinsville, Benton, and Paducah, into Illinois, and into Missouri.”

“From Hopkinsville, the corridor will head east toward Bowling Green, Somerset, and on to Pikeville and the state line with West Virginia at Williamson,” Spurlock said.

The letter follows other recent news in Kentucky. On September 29, Gov. Andy Beshear announced $85 million in federal INFRA grant funding for the Somerset Northern Bypass, the same project for which Congressman Rogers’s letter cites $82 million in Community Project Funding. Kentucky’s 2026 Enacted Highway Plan and its Statewide Transportation Improvement Program both label the project “Somerset Northern Bypass (I-66).” Governor Andy Beshear’s September 29 announcement said the project “will complete an east-west corridor across southern Kentucky, creating economic opportunities for communities from Paducah to Pikeville.” Pikeville and Paducah are the easternmost and westernmost Kentucky cities Congress named in the corridor’s route description.

“It is fitting that Congressman Rogers was the first,” Spurlock said. “This corridor was placed in the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 largely through efforts between Missouri’s 8th District and Kentucky’s 5th District. More than three decades later, our work is to finish what Congress authorized.”

The 1991 act, known as ISTEA, designated the East-West TransAmerica Corridor as High Priority Corridor 3. The three congressional letters join more than 60 endorsement letters TAC has received from communities, elected officials and organizations across three states.

In his letter, Chairman Comer also said he looks forward to continuing to work with his colleagues in Congress, the Kentucky General Assembly, and local officials “to promote transportation policies which benefit the American people and support critical investments in our nation’s infrastructure.”