After passing the Senate and House, President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Appalachian Regional Development Act of 1965 into law on March 9, 1965. The act established the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC), whose membership included representatives from New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi as well as one federal appointee. The ARC was tasked with overseeing the development of programs aimed at facilitating economic development in Appalachia as well as the construction of the Appalachian Highway Development System, a network of more than 3,500 miles of new highways designed to connect previously isolated Appalachian communities with larger national markets.