IIB 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. J. RES. 92 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 18, 2017 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

JOINT RESOLUTION 

Granting the consent and approval of Congress for the Commonwealth of Virginia, the State of Maryland, and the 

District of Columbia to amend the Washington Area 

Transit Regulation Compact. 

1 Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives

2 of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. FINDINGS. 

2 Congress finds the following: 

3 (1) Congress in title III of the Fixing America’s 

4 Surface Transportation Act (section 3026, Public 

5 Law 114–94) provided sole authority to the Sec6 retary of Transportation to appoint Federal Direc7 tors to the Board of Directors of the Washington 

8 Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and required 

9 the signatory parties to the Compact to amend the 

10 Compact as necessary. 

11 (2) Legislation enacted by the State of Mary12 land, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the Dis13 trict of Columbia contains the amendments to the 

14 Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Regulation 

15 Compact pursuant to section 3026(b) of the Fixing 

16 America’s Surface Transportation Act (Public Law 

17 114–94). 

18 SEC. 2. CONSENT OF CONGRESS TO COMPACT AMEND19 MENTS. 

20 (a) CONSENT.—Consent of Congress is given to the 

21 amendments of the State of Maryland, the amendments 

22 of the Commonwealth of Virginia, and the amendments 

23 of the District of Columbia to section 5, of title III of 

24 the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Regulation 

25 Compact. 


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1 (b) AMENDMENTS.—The amendments referred to in 

2 subsection (a) amending section 5 of such Compact are 

3 substantially as follows: 

4 ‘‘(a) The Authority shall be governed by a Board of 

5 eight Directors consisting of two Directors for each Signa6 tory and two for the Federal Government (one of whom 

7 shall be a regular passenger and customer of the bus or 

8 rail service of the Authority). For Virginia, the Directors 

9 shall be appointed by the Northern Virginia Transpor10 tation Commission; for the District of Columbia by the 

11 Council of the District of Columbia; for Maryland, by the 

12 Washington Suburban Transit Commission; and for the 

13 Federal Government, by the Secretary of the United 

14 States Department of Transportation. For Virginia and 

15 Maryland, the Directors shall be appointed from among 

16 the members of the appointing body, except as otherwise 

17 provided herein, and shall serve for a term coincident with 

18 their term on the appointing body. A Director for a Signa19 tory may be removed or suspended from office only as pro20 vided by the law of the Signatory from which he was ap21 pointed. The non-Federal appointing authorities shall also 

22 appoint an alternate for each Director. In addition, the 

23 Secretary of the United States Department of Transpor24 tation shall also appoint two nonvoting members who shall 

25 serve as the alternates for the Federal Directors. An alterVerDate Sep 11 2014 03:21 Jul 19, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HJ92.RFS HJ92

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1 nate Director may act only in the absence of the Director 

2 for whom he has been appointed an alternate, except that, 

3 in the case of the District of Columbia where only one 

4 Director and his alternate are present, such alternate may 

5 act on behalf of the absent Director. Each alternate, in6 cluding the Federal nonvoting Directors, shall serve at the 

7 pleasure of the appointing authority. In the event of a va8 cancy in the Office of Director or alternate, it shall be 

9 filled in the same manner as an original appointment. 

10 ‘‘(b) Before entering upon the duties of his office 

11 each Director and alternate director shall take and sub12 scribe to the following oath (or affirmation) of office or 

13 any such other oath or affirmation, if any, as the Constitu14 tion or laws of the Government he represents shall provide: 

15 ‘I, llllllllllllllllllll, here16 by solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and de17 fend the Constitution of the United States and the Con18 stitution and Laws of the state or political jurisdiction 

19 from which I was appointed as a Director (alternate direc20 tor) of the Board of Washington Metropolitan Area Tran21 sit Authority and will faithfully discharge the duties of the 

22 office upon which I am about to enter.’.’’. 

23 SEC. 3. RIGHT TO ALTER, AMEND, OR REPEAL. 

24 The right to alter, amend, or repeal this joint resolu25 tion is expressly reserved. The consent granted by this 


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1 joint resolution shall not be construed as impairing or in 

2 any manner affecting any right or jurisdiction of the 

3 United States in and over the region that forms the sub4 ject of the Compact. 

5 SEC. 4. CONSTRUCTION AND SEVERABILITY. 

6 It is intended that the provisions of this Compact 

7 shall be reasonably and liberally construed to effectuate 

8 the purposes thereof. If any part or application of this 

9 Compact, or legislation enabling the Compact, is held in10 valid, the remainder of the Compact or its application to 

11 other situations or persons shall not be affected. 

12 SEC. 5. INCONSISTENCY OF LANGUAGE. 

13 The validity of this Compact shall not be affected by 

14 any insubstantial differences in its form or language as 

15 adopted by the State of Maryland, the Commonwealth of 

16 Virginia, and the District of Columbia. 

17 SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

18 This joint resolution shall take effect on the date of 

19 enactment of this joint resolution. 

Passed the House of Representatives July 17, 2017. 

Attest: KAREN L. HAAS, 

Clerk. 


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