In 1945, the highway commission authorized a three-year pilot program for the construction of of farm-to-market roadways, with cost to be shared equally by the state and federal governments. As the program grew, efforts were made by legislators from rural areas, including State Senator Grady Hazlewood of Amarillo, to expand the farm-to-market road network in the late 1940s. The funding was to have come from an increase in the fuel tax, as proposed by State Senator Grover Morris in 1947; however, this measure was stymied by lobbyists, who supported such funding for arterial roads.