An Act to amend the Federal Reserve Act so as to authorize national banking associations to make loans on forest tracts
PL 83-285 (H.R.5603), enacted 08/15/1953

67 S T A T . ] 
PUBLIC LAW 285-AUG. 15, 1953 
613 
Lands restored 
to tribes. 
32 Stat. 
5 use 
SEC. 3, The sum transferred to the credit of the Shoshone and 
^'^^^' 
Arapahoe Tribes of Indians as aforesaid and the expenses of carrying 
out the provisions of this Act shall be nonreimbursable and nonreturn-
able under the reclamation laws of the United States. The net proceeds 
derived from the disposal of said lands shall be covered into the 
general fund of the Treasury or into the reclamation fund as the 
Secretary of the Interior shall find appropriate in the light of the 
source from which the funds transferred or expended in carrying out 
this Act are derived. 
SEC. 4. Subject to any outstanding rights and interests, all of the 
ceded lands of the Wind River Reservation withdrawn pursuant to 
the Act of June 17,1902, for the development of the Riverton reclama-
tion project, Wyoming, not included within the boundaries of the use 39! 
tract described in section 1 of this Act, are hereby restored to the 
ownership of said tribes to the same extent as the ownership provided 
by the Act of July 27, 1939 (53 Stat. 1128), with respect to vacant 
lands ceded to the United States under the provisions of the Act of 
March 3, 1905 (33 Stat. 1016), but not subsequently withdrawn for 
reclamation purposes: Provided, 
That the compensation authorized 
in section 1 hereof shall also be deemed to release the United States 
from any and all claims for damages whatsoever arising out of with-
drawal of lands herein restored to tribal ownership. 
SEC. 5. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the United 
States shall deposit in the Treasury of the United States to the credit 
of said tribes, to be available for expenditure for the benefit of said 
tribes and their members, as provided by the Act of May 19, 1947 (61 
Stat. 102), as amended by the Act of August 30, 1951 (65 Stat. 208), 
and by the Act of July 17, 1953 (Public Law 132, Eighty-third Con-
gress), and as may be hereinafter amended, 90 per centum of the 
gross receipts of the United States, as they are received from time to 
time, from all leases, bonuses, royalties, or other proceeds derived 
under the mining and mineral-leasing laws of the United States from 
any and all lands in which all rights and interests of the tribes are 
terminated and extinguished by the terms and conditions of section 
1 of this Act and which are embraced within the boundaries of the 
tract described in said section 1. Notwithstanding any other pro-
vision of law the remaining 10 per centum of such gross receipts shall 
be deposited in the Treasury of the United States to the credit of 
miscellaneous receipts. 
SEC. 6. Should this Act become law subsequent to June 30, 1954, 
there is hereby reserved to the Shoshone and Arapahoe Tribes the 
privilege of rejecting, within one hundred and twenty days after the 
date of the Act, the terms and conditions of its sections 1, 4, and 5. 
If those terms and conditions are rejected, no part of the Act shall 
become effective. 
SEC. 7. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to perform any 
and all acts to carry out the provisions and purposes of this Act. 
Approved August 15, 1953. 
388. 
485; 43 
25 use 571-577. 
Gross receipts 
from leases, etc. 
25 use 611-613. 
Ante, p. 179. 
Rejection priv-
ilege. 
Public Law 285 
CHAPTER 510 
AN ACT 
To amend the Federal Reserve Act so as to authorize national banking 
associations to make loans on forest tracts. 
August 15, 1953 
[H. R. 5603] 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 24 of 
the Federal Reserve Act, as amended, is amended by inserting after 
the first paragraph thereof the following new paragraph: 
88 Stat. 2 73. 
12 use 371. 
614 
PUBLIC LAW 286-AUG. 15, 1953 
[67 S T A T . 
triiitff' °" forest 
"^jiy national banking association may make real-estate loans 
secured by first liens upon forest tracts which are properly managed 
in all respects. 
Such loans shall be in the form of an obligation or 
obligations secured by mortgage, trust deed, or other such instrument; 
and any national banking association may purchase any obligation so 
secured when the entire amount of such obligation is sold to the 
association. 
The amount of any such loan shall not exceed 40 per 
centum of the appraised value of the economically marketable timber 
offered as security and the loan shall be made upon such terms and 
conditions as to assure that at no time shall the loan balance exceed 
40 per centum of the original appraised value of the economically 
marketable timber then remaining. 
No such loan shall be made for a 
longer term than two years; except that any such loan may be made 
for a term not longer than ten y^ars if the loan is secured by an 
amortized mortgage, deed of trust, or other such instrument under 
the terms of which the installment payments are sufficient to amortize 
the principal of the loan within a period of not more than ten years 
and at a rate of at least 10 per centum per annum. 
All such loans 
secured by first liens upon forest tracts shall be included in the per-
missible aggregate of all real estate loans prescribed in the preceding 
paragraph, but no national banking association shall make forest-
tract loans in an aggregate sum in excess of 50 per centum of its 
capital stock paid in and unimpaired plus 50 per centum of its 
unimpaired surplus fund." 
Approved August 15, 1953. 
Public Law 286 
CHAPTER 511 
. , c 
in=, 
AN ACT 
August 15, 1953 
[H. R. 6281] 
fjijj reimburse the Post Office Department for the transmission of official Govern-
ment-mail matter. 
Government mall. 
Reimbursement 
for transmission. 
39 u s e 3211. 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assernbled^ That section 301 of 
the Penalty Mail Act of 1948 (62 Stat. 1048) is amended by the addi-
tion of a sentence as follows: "Based on such accountings, there shall 
be transferred to the Post Office Department as postal revenue, out 
of any appropriations or funds available to the departments, agencies, 
and establishments concerned, the equivalent amount of postage due 
therefor, as determined pursuant to regulations prescribed by the 
Postmaster General.". 
SEC. 2. The postage on mail matter sent and received through the 
mails under the franking privilege by the Vice President, Members, 
and Members-elect of Congress, the Delegates and Delegates-elect 
from Alaska and Hawaii, the Resident Commissioner from Puerto 
Rico, the Secretary of the Senate, and the Clerk of the House of Rep-
resentatives, including registry fees if registration is required, shall 
be paid by a lump-sum appropriation to be made to the Post Office 
Department for that purpose, and the amount of such lump-sum 
appropriation shall be credited to the Post Office Department as postal 
revenue. 
Approved August 15, 1953, 
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