Calendar No. 218

104TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 848

A BILL

To grant the consent of Congress to an amendment

the States of Alabama and Georgia.of the Historic Chattahoochee Compact between

OCTOBER 26, 1995

Reported without amendment
II

Calendar No. 218

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

OCTOBER 26, 1995

Reported by Mr. HATCH, without amendment

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,
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1 SECTION 1. CONSENT OF CONGRESS TO THE HISTORIC

2 CHATTAHOOCHEE COMPACT BETWEEN THE

3 STATES OF ALABAMA AND GEORGIA.

4 The consent of Congress is given to the amendment

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

6 Compact between the States of Alabama and Georgia,

7 which articles, as amended, read as follows:

8 ‘‘ARTICLE I

9 ‘‘The purpose of this compact is to promote the coop10 erative development of the Chattahoochee valley’s full po11 tential for historic preservation and tourism and to estab12 lish a joint interstate authority to assist in these efforts.

13 ‘‘ARTICLE II

14 ‘‘This compact shall become effective immediately as

15 to the States ratifying it whenever the States of Alabama

16 and Georgia have ratified it and Congress has given con17 sent thereto.

18 ‘‘ARTICLE III

19 ‘‘The States which are parties to this compact (here20 inafter referred to as ‘party States’) do hereby establish

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

22 Historic Chattahoochee Commission (hereinafter referred

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

24 28 members who shall be bona fide residents and qualified

25 voters of the party States and counties served by the Com26 mission. Election for vacant seats shall be by majority vote
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1 of the voting members of the Commission board at a regu2 larly scheduled meeting. In Alabama, two shall be resi3 dents of Barbour County, two shall be residents of Russell

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

5 be residents of Chambers County, two shall be residents

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

7 and two shall be residents of Dale County. In Georgia,

8 one shall be a resident of Troup County, one shall be a

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

10 Muscogee County, one shall be a resident of Chattahoo11 chee County, one shall be a resident of Stewart County,

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

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

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

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

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

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

18 three of the Georgia member counties listed above. The

19 Commission at its discretion may appoint as many advi20 sory members as it deems necessary from any Georgia or

21 Alabama County which is located in the Chattahoochee

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

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

24 equal amounts to the Commission during any given fiscal

25 year, voting membership on the Commission board shall
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1 be determined as follows: The State making the larger ap2 propriation shall be entitled to full voting membership.

3 The total number of members from the other State shall

4 be divided into the amount of the larger appropriation and

5 the resulting quotient shall be divided into the amount of

6 the smaller appropriation. The then resulting quotient,

7 rounded to the next lowest whole number, shall be the

8 number of voting members from the State making the

9 smaller contribution. The members of the Commission

10 from the State making the larger contribution shall decide

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

12 voting members, based upon the level of tourism, preserva13 tion, promotional activity, and general support of the

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

15 of each of the members of the State making the smaller

16 appropriation. Such determination shall be made at the

17 next meeting of the Commission following September 30

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

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

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

21 and the remaining member of each county shall serve for

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

23 office of Alabama members, all successor Alabama mem24 bers shall be appointed for four-year terms of office, with

25 seven vacancies in the Alabama membership occurring
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1 every two years. Of the 14 Georgia members, seven shall

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

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

4 Georgia voting members shall be determined by their place

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

6 terms beginning with Chattahoochee County, four years,

7 Clay County, two years, Decatur County, four years, etc.

8 Upon the expiration of the original terms of office of Geor9 gia members, all successor Georgia members shall be ap10 pointed for four-year terms of office, with seven vacancies

11 in the Georgia membership occurring every two years. Of

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

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

14 ‘‘All board members shall serve until their successors

15 are appointed and qualified. Vacancies shall be filled by

16 the voting members of the Commission. The first chair17 man of the commission created by this compact shall be

18 elected by the board of directors from among its voting

19 membership. Annually thereafter, each succeeding chair20 man shall be selected by the members of the Commission.

21 The chairmanship shall rotate each year among the party

22 States in order of their acceptance of this compact. Mem23 bers of the Commission shall serve without compensation

24 but shall be entitled to reimbursement for actual expenses
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1 incurred in the performance of the duties of the

2 Commission.’’.