Beginning January 1, 1994, all federal construction projects must be designed using the metric system. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, the agency in charge of the conversion, hired a construction firm to build its new buildings according to metric measure. A NIST official noted that "obviously, a lot of products used in the construction industry in this country are not in metric yet."

NIST is also behind a move to promote a new standard size for a sheet of paper according to metric measurement. Instead of 8.5 by 11 inches, NIST has endorsed a size called "A4." The new size is equivalent to 8.3 by 11.7 inches.

Early in 1994 the Federal Highway Administration began seeking comments on a plan to change road signs to the metric system (1 mile = 1.609 kilometers). The choices being considered were replacing miles with kilometers over seven years; making the change in one year along with an education program; giving the states two years to change all signs to display both miles and kilometers; or just leaving the whole damn thing alone.

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