An Act granting the consent of Congress to certain Western States and the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii to enter into a compact relating to higher education in the Western States and establishing the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education
PL 83-226 (S.1515), enacted 08/08/1953

490 
PUBLIC LAW 22 6-AUG. 8, 1953 
[67 ST A T . 
Public Law 226 
CHAPTER 380 
August 8,1953 
AN ACT 
[S. 1515] 
Granting the consent of Congress to certain Western States and the Territories 
of Alaska and Hawaii to enter into a compact relating to higher education in 
the Western States and establishing the Western Interstate Commission for 
Higher Education. 
Western e d u c a-
tional compact. 
Consent of Con-
gress. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assetnhled^ That the consent of 
Congress is hereby given to any five or more of the States of Arizona, 
California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, 
Utah, Washington, and Wyoming and the Territories of Alaska and 
Hawaii to enter into the following compact and agreement relating 
to higher education and creating the Western Interstate Commission 
for Higher Education. 
The compact reads as follows: 
ARTICLE I 
WHEREAS, the future of this Nation and of the Western States 
is dependent upon the quality of the education of its youth; and 
WHEREAS, many of the Western States individually do not have 
sufficient numbers of potential students to warrant the establishment 
and maintenance within their borders of adequate facilities in dll of 
the essential fields of technical professional, and graduate training, 
nor do all the states have the financial ability to furnish within their 
borders institutions capable of providing acceptable standards of 
training in all of the fields mentioned above; and 
WHEREAS, it is believed that the Western States, or groups of 
such states w ithin the Region, cooperatively can provide acceptable 
and efficient educational facilities to meet the needs of the Region 
and of the students thereof: 
Now, therefore, the States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, 
Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and 
Wyoming, and the Territories of Alaska and Hawaii do hereby 
covenant and agree as follows: 
ARTICLE II 
Each of the compacting states and territories pledges to each of 
the other compacting states and territories faithful cooperation in 
carrying out all the purposes of this Compact. 
W e s t e r n Inter-
state Commission 
for Higher Educa-
tion. 
ARTICLE III 
The compacting states and territories hereby create the Western 
Interstate Commission for Higher Education, hereinafter called the 
Commission. 
Said Commission shall be a body corporate of each 
compacting state and territory and an agency thereof. The Commis-
sion shall have all the powers and duties set forth herein, including 
the power to sue and be sued, and such additional powders as may be 
conferred upon it by subsequent action of the respective legislatures 
of the compacting states and territories. 
ARTICLE IV 
Membership, etc. 
rpj^^ Commissiou shall consist of three resident members from each 
compacting state or territory. At all times one Commissioner from 
each compacting state or territory shall be an educator engaged in 
the field of higher education in the state or territory from which he is 
appointed. 
67 S T A T . ] 
PUBLIC LAW 226-AUG. 8, 1953 
491 
The Commissioners from each state and territory shall be appointed 
by the Governor thereof as provided by law in such state or territory. 
Any Commissioner may be removed or suspended from office as pro-
vided by the law of the state or territory from which he shall have 
been appointed. 
The terms of each Commissioner shall be four years: Provided^ 
however^ That the first three Commissioners shall be appointed as 
follows: one for two years, one for three years, and one for four 
years. Each Commissioner shall hold office until his successor shall 
be appointed and qualified. 
If any office becomes vacant for any 
reason, the Governor shall appoint a Commissioner to fill the office for 
the remainder of the unexpired term. 
ARTICLE V 
Any business transacted at any meeting of the Commission must be 
by affirmative vote of a majority of the whole number of compacting 
states and territories. 
One or more Commissioners from a majority of the compacting 
states and territories shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of 
business. 
Each compacting state and territory represented at any meeting of 
the Commission is entitled to one vote. 
ARTICLE VI 
The Commission shall elect from its number a chairman and a vice 
chairman, and may appoint, and at its pleasure dismiss or remove, 
such officers, agents, and employees as may be required to carry out the 
purpose of this Compact; and shall fix and determine their duties, 
qualifications and compensation, having due regard for the impor-
tance of the responsibilities involved. 
The Commissioners shall serve without compensation, but shall be 
reimbursed for their actual and necessary expenses from the funds of 
the Commission. 
ARTICLE VII 
The Commission shall adopt a seal and by-laws and shall adopt and 
promulgate rules and regulations for its management and control. 
The Commission may elect such committees as it deems necessary 
for the carrying out of its functions. 
The Commission shall establish and maintain an office within one of 
the compacting states for the transaction of its business and may meet 
at any time, but in any event must meet at least once a year. 
The 
Chairman may call such additional meetings and upon the request of 
a majority of the Commissioners of three or more compacting states or 
territories shall call additional meetings. 
The Commission shall submit a budget to the Governor of each com-
E
acting state and territory at such time and for such period as may 
e required. 
The Commission shall, after negotiations with interested institu-
tions, determine the cost of providing the facilities for graduate and 
professional education for use in its contractual agreements through-
out the Region. 
On or before the fifteenth day of January of each year, the Commis- 
Report, 
sion shall submit to the Governors and Legislatures of the compacting 
states and territories a report of its activities for the preceding calen-
dar year. 
The Commission shall keep accurate books of account, showing in 
full its receipts and disbursements, and said books of account shall be 
492 
PUBLIC LAW 226-AUG. 8, 1953 
[67 ST A T , 
open at any reasonable time for inspection by the Governor of any 
compacting state or territory or his designated representative. 
The 
Commission shall not be subject to the audit and accounting procedure 
of any of the compacting states or territories. 
The Commission shall 
provide for an independent annual audit. 
C o n t r a c t 
agreements. 
u a 1 
Operating costs, 
apportionment. 
ARTICLE VIII 
It shall be the duty of the Commission to enter into such contractual 
agreements with any institutions in the Region offering graduate or 
professional education and with any of the compacting states or ter-
ritories as may be required in the judgment of the Commission to 
provide adequate services and facilities of graduate and professional 
education for the citizens of the respective compacting states or terri-
tories. The Commission shall first endeavor to provide adequate 
services and facilities in the fields of dentistry, medicine, public health, 
and veterinary medicine, and may undertake similar activities in other 
professional and graduate fields. 
For this purpose the Commission may enter into contractual 
agreements— 
(a) with the governing authority of any educational institution in 
the Region, or with any compacting state or territory, to provide such 
graduate or professional educational services upon terms and condi-
tions to be agreed upon between contracting parties, and 
(b) with the governing authority of any educational institution in 
the Region or with any compacting state or territory to assist in the 
placement of graduate or professional students in educational institu-
tions in the Region providing the desired services and facilities, upon 
such terms and conditions as the Commission may prescribe. 
It shall be the duty of the Commission to undertake studies of needs 
for professional and graduate educational facilities in the Region, 
the resources for meeting such needs, and the long-range effects of the 
Compact on higher education; and from time to time to prepare com-
prehensive reports on such research for presentation to the Western 
Governor's Conference and to the legislatures of the compacting states 
and territories. 
In conducting such studies, the Commission may 
confer with any national or regional planning body which may be 
established. The Commission shall draft and recommend to the Gov-
ernors of the various compacting states and territories, uniform legis-
lation dealing with problems of higher education in the Region. 
For the purposes of this Compact the word "Region" shall be con-
strued to mean the geographical limits of the several compacting 
states and territories. 
ARTICLE IX 
The operating costs of the Commission shall be apportioned equally 
among the compacting states and territories. 
ARTICLE X 
This Compact shall become operative and binding immediately as 
to those states and territories adopting it whenever five or more of the 
states or territories of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, 
Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Alaska 
and Hawaii have duly adopted it prior to July 1,1953. This Compact 
shall become effective as to any additional states or territories adopting 
thereafter at the time of such adoption. 
67 
S T A T . ] 
PUBLIC LAW 227-AUG. 8, 1953 
493 
ARTICLE XI 
This Compact may be terminated at any time by consent of a major-
ity of the compacting states and territories. 
Consent shall be mani-
fested by passage and signature in the usual manner of legislation 
expressing such consent oy the legislature and Governor of such 
terminating state. Any state or territory may at any time withdraw 
from this Compact by means of appropriate legislation to that end. 
Such withdrawal shall not become effective until two years after 
written notice thereof by the Governor of the withdrawing state or 
territory accompanied by a certified copy of the requisite legislative 
action is received by the Commission. 
Such withdrawal shall not 
relieve the withdrawing state or territory from its obligations here-
under accruing prior to the effective date of withdrawal. 
The with-
drawing state or territory may rescind its action of withdrawal at any 
time within the two-year period. 
Thereafter, the withdrawing state 
or territory may be reinstated by application to and the approval by 
a majority vote of the Commission. 
Termination. 
Withdrawal. 
ARTICLE XII 
If any compacting state or territory shall at any time default in the 
performance of any of its obligations assumed or imposed in accord-
ance with the provisions of this Compact, all rights, privileges and 
benefits conferred by this Compact or agreements hereunder shall be 
suspended from the effective date of such default as fixed by the 
Commission. 
Unless such default shall be remedied within a period of two years 
following the effective date of such default, this Compact may be 
terminated with respect to such defaulting state or territory by affirm-
ative vote of three-fourths of the other member states or territories. 
Any such defaulting state may be reinstated by: (a) perjfprming all 
acts and obligations upon which it has heretofore defaulted, and (b) 
application to and the approval by a majority vote of the Commission. 
SEC. 2. The right to alter, amend, or repeal this Act is hereby 
expressly reserved. 
Approved August 8, 1953. 
Default in per-
formance of oblige* 
tions. 
Public Law 227 
CHAPTER 381 
AN ACT 
To amend the Act of May 29, 1884, as amended, to provide for the control and 
eradication of scx-apie and blue tongue in sheep, and incipient or potentially 
serious minor outbrealis of diseases of animals; and for other purposes. 
August 8, 1953 
[S.2055] 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assemhled^ That section 11 of 
the Act of Congress approved May 29, 1884, entitled "An Act for the 
establishment of a Bureau of Animal Industry, to prevent the exporta-
tion of diseased cattle, and to provide means for the suppression and 
extirpation of pleuropneumonia and other contagious diseases among 
domestic animals" (21 U. S. C. 114a) is hereby amended to read as 
follows: 
"SEC. 11. The Secretary of Agriculture, either independently or in 
cooperation with States or political subdivisions thereof, farmers' 
associations and similar organizations, and individuals, is authorized 
to control and eradicate tuberculosis and paratuberculosis of animals, 
avian tuberculosis, brucellosis of domestic animals, southern cattle 
ticks, hog cholera and related swine diseases, scabies in sheep and 
Animal 
control. 
disease 
58 Stat. 734. 
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