II

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 848

To grant the consent of Congress to an amendment of the Historic

Chattahoochee Compact between the States of Alabama and Georgia.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 24 (legislative day, MAY 15), 1995

Mr. SHELBY (for himself, Mr. HEFLIN, Mr. COVERDELL, and Mr. NUNN) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL

To grant the consent of Congress to an amendment of the

Historic Chattahoochee Compact between the States of

Alabama and Georgia.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. CONSENT OF CONGRESS TO THE HISTORIC

4 CHATTAHOOCHEE COMPACT BETWEEN THE

5 STATES OF ALABAMA AND GEORGIA.

6 The consent of Congress is given to the amendment

7 of articles I, II, and III of the Historic Chattahoochee

8 Compact between the States of Alabama and Georgia,

9 which articles, as amended, read as follows:
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1 ‘‘ARTICLE I

2 ‘‘The purpose of this compact is to promote the coop3 erative development of the Chattahoochee valley’s full po4 tential for historic preservation and tourism and to estab5 lish a joint interstate authority to assist in these efforts.

6 ‘‘ARTICLE II

7 ‘‘This compact shall become effective immediately as

8 to the States ratifying it whenever the States of Alabama

9 and Georgia have ratified it and Congress has given con10 sent thereto.

11 ‘‘ARTICLE III

12 ‘‘The States which are parties to this compact (here13 inafter referred to as ‘party States’) do hereby establish

14 and create a joint agency which shall be known as the

15 Historic Chattahoochee Commission (hereinafter referred

16 to as the ‘Commission’). The Commission shall consist of

17 28 members who shall be bona fide residents and qualified

18 voters of the party States and counties served by the Com19 mission. Election for vacant seats shall be by majority vote

20 of the voting members of the Commission board at a regu21 larly scheduled meeting. In Alabama, two shall be resi22 dents of Barbour County, two shall be residents of Russell

23 County, two shall be residents of Henry County, two shall

24 be residents of Chambers County, two shall be residents

25 of Lee County, two shall be residents of Houston County,

26 and two shall be residents of Dale County. In Georgia,
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1 one shall be a resident of Troup County, one shall be a

2 resident of Harris County, one shall be a resident of

3 Muscogee County, one shall be a resident of Chattahoo4 chee County, one shall be a resident of Stewart County,

5 one shall be a resident of Randolph County, one shall be

6 a resident of Clay County, one shall be a resident of

7 Quitman County, one shall be a resident of Early County,

8 one shall be a resident of Seminole County, and one shall

9 be a resident of Decatur County. In addition, there shall

10 be three at-large members who shall be selected from any

11 three of the Georgia member counties listed above. The

12 Commission at its discretion may appoint as many advi13 sory members as it deems necessary from any Georgia or

14 Alabama County which is located in the Chattahoochee

15 Valley area. The contribution of each party State shall be

16 in equal amounts. If the party States fail to appropriate

17 equal amounts to the Commission during any given fiscal

18 year, voting membership on the Commission board shall

19 be determined as follows: The State making the larger ap20 propriation shall be entitled to full voting membership.

21 The total number of members from the other State shall

22 be divided into the amount of the larger appropriation and

23 the resulting quotient shall be divided into the amount of

24 the smaller appropriation. The then resulting quotient,

25 rounded to the next lowest whole number, shall be the
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1 number of voting members from the State making the

2 smaller contribution. The members of the Commission

3 from the State making the larger contribution shall decide

4 which of the members from the other State shall serve as

5 voting members, based upon the level of tourism, preserva6 tion, promotional activity, and general support of the

7 Commission’s activities by and in the county of residence

8 of each of the members of the State making the smaller

9 appropriation. Such determination shall be made at the

10 next meeting of the Commission following September 30

11 of each year. Members of the Commission shall serve for

12 terms of office as follows: Of the 14 Alabama members,

13 one from each of said counties shall serve for two years

14 and the remaining member of each county shall serve for

15 four years. Upon the expiration of the original terms of

16 office of Alabama members, all successor Alabama mem17 bers shall be appointed for four-year terms of office, with

18 seven vacancies in the Alabama membership occurring

19 every two years. Of the 14 Georgia members, seven shall

20 serve four-year terms and seven two-year terms for the

21 initial term of this compact. The terms of the individual

22 Georgia voting members shall be determined by their place

23 in the alphabet by alternating the four- and two-year

24 terms beginning with Chattahoochee County, four years,

25 Clay County, two years, Decatur County, four years, etc.
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1 Upon the expiration of the original terms of office of Geor2 gia members, all successor Georgia members shall be ap3 pointed for four-year terms of office, with seven vacancies

4 in the Georgia membership occurring every two years. Of

5 the three Georgia at-large board members, one shall serve

6 a four-year term and two shall serve two-year terms.

7 ‘‘All board members shall serve until their successors

8 are appointed and qualified. Vacancies shall be filled by

9 the voting members of the Commission. The first chair10 man of the commission created by this compact shall be

11 elected by the board of directors from among its voting

12 membership. Annually thereafter, each succeeding chair13 man shall be selected by the members of the Commission.

14 The chairmanship shall rotate each year among the party

15 States in order of their acceptance of this compact. Mem16 bers of the Commission shall serve without compensation

17 but shall be entitled to reimbursement for actual expenses

18 incurred in the performance of the duties of the

19 Commission.’’.

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