An Act to create a committee to study and evaluate public and private experiments in weather modification
PL 83-256 (S.285), enacted 08/13/1953

67 S T A T . ] 
PUBLIC LAW 256-AUG. 13, 1953 
559 
Public Law 256 
CHAPTER 426 
AN ACT 
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, ,, ,„„ 
Augumt 13, 1953 
To create a committee to study and evaluate public and private experiments in 
[S.285] 
weather modification. 
Be it enacted ty the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the c^u^!^^' modifi-
United States of America in Congress assembled^ 
Evaluation. 
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE AND POLICY 
Eesearch and experimentation in the field of weather modification 
and control have attained the stage at which the application of scien-
tific advances in this field appears to be practical. 
The effect of the use of measures for the control of weather phe-
nomena upon the social, economic, and political structures of today, 
and upon national security, cannot now be determined. 
It is a field 
in which unknown factors are involved. It is reasonable to anticipate, 
however, that modification and control of weather, if effective on a 
large scale, would cause profound changes in our present way of life 
and would result in vast and far-reaching benefits to agriculture, 
industry, commerce, and the general welfare and common defense. 
While the ultimate extent to which weather modification and control 
may be utilized is speculative, the application of such measures with-
out proper safeguards, sufficient data and accurate information may 
result in inadequate or excessive precipitation; may cause catastrophic 
droughts, storms, floods, and other phenomena with consequent loss of 
life and property, injury to navigable streams and other channels of 
interstate and foreign commerce, injury to water supplies for munic-
ipal, irrigation, and industrial purposes, and injury to sources of 
hydroelectric power; may otherwise impede the production and 
transportation of goods and services for domestic consumption and 
export and for the national defense; and may otherwise adversely 
affect the general welfare and common defense. 
Thorough experimentation and full-scale operations in weather 
modification and control will of necessity affect areas extending across 
State and possibly across national boundaries. The Congress, there-
fore, recognizes that experimentation and application of such measures 
are matters of national and international concern. 
Accordingly, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress, 
in order to effect the maximum benefit which may result from experi-
ments and operations designed to modify and control weather, to 
correlate and evaluate the information derived from such activity 
and to cooperate with the several States and the duly authorized 
officials thereof with respect to such activity, all to the end of encour-
aging the intelligent experimentation 9,nd the beneficial development 
of weather modification and control, preventing its harmful and 
indiscriminate exercise, and fostering sound economic conditions in 
the public interest. 
CREATION OF ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON WEATHER CONTROL 
SEC. 2. There is hereby established a national committee to be known 
as the Advisory Committee on Weather Control (hereinafter called 
the "Committee"). 
SEC. 3. The Committee shall make a complete study and evaluation 
of public and private experiments in weather control for the'purpose 
of determining the extent to which the United States should experi-
ment with, engage in, or regulate activities designed to control weather 
conditions. 
560 
PUBLIC LAW 256-AUG. 13, 1953 
[67 S T A T , 
Menibers. 
Meetings. 
Compensation. 
63 Stat. 166. 
5 u s e 835 note. 
Officers and em-
ployeesr 
63 Stat. 954. 
5 u s e 1071 note. 
Hearings. 
Information, etc., 
from agencies. 
P er s o n n e l of 
other agencies. 
SEC. 4. The Committee shall be composed of the Secretary of 
Defense or his designee, the Secretary of Agriculture or his designee, 
the Secretary of Commerce or his designee, the Secretary of the 
Interior or his designee, the Director of the National Science Founda-
tion or his designee, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare 
or his designee, and five members appointed by the President, by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate, from among persons in 
private life of outstanding ability in the fields of science, agriculture, 
and business. A vacancy in the Committee shall not affect its powers 
but shall be filled in the same manner that the original appointment 
was made. 
SEC. 5. The President shall appoint the Chairman and Vice Chair-
man of the Committee. The Chairman shall be appointed from among 
those persons appointed to the Committee from private life. 
SEC. 6. The Committee shall hold at least two meetings a year, 
approximately six months apart, and, on due notice, shall meet at such 
other times as the Committee may determine. 
Six members of the 
Committee shall constitute a quorum. 
SEC. 7. The members of the Committee who are in the executive 
branch of the Government shall receive no additional compensation 
for their services on the Committee. The members from private life 
shall each receive $50 per diem when engaged in the performance of 
duties vested in the Committee. All members of the Committee shall 
be reimbursed in accordance with the Travel Expense Act of 1949, as 
amended, for travel, subsistence, and other necessary expenses incurred 
by them in the performance of duties vested in the Committee. 
SEC. 8. The Committee shall have power to appoint and fix the 
compensation of such officers and employees as may be necessary to 
carry out the functions of the Committee, including one executive 
secretary at a salary not exceeding $12,000 per annum. Officers and 
employees other than the executive secretary shall be appointed in 
accordance with the Classification Act of 1949, as amended, except 
that to the extent the Committee deems such action necessary to the 
discharge of its responsibilities, personnel for positions requiring 
scientific or special qualifications may be employed and their compen-
sation fixed without regard to such laws. The Committee shall make 
adequate provision for administrative review of any determination 
to dismiss any employee. 
SEC. 9. (a) The Committee, or any member thereof, may, for the 
purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act, hold such hearings 
and sit and act at such times and places, and take such testimony as 
the Committee shall deem advisable. Any member of the Committee 
may administer oaths or affirmations to witnesses appearing before 
the Committee or before such member. 
(b) The Committee is authorized to secure directly from any execu-
tive department, bureau, agency, board, commission, office, independent 
establishment, or instrumentality information, suggestions, estimates, 
and statistics for the purpose of this Act; and each such department, 
bureau, agency, board, commission, office, establishment, or instru-
mentality is authorized and directed to furnish such information, sug-
gestions, estimates, and statistics directlj to the Committee, upon 
request made by the Chairman or Vice Chairman. 
(c) The Committee may, with the consent of the agency concerned, 
accept and utilize, on a reimbursable basis, the personnel of any other 
agency of the Federal Government. 
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PUBLIC LAW 256-AUG. 13, 1953 
561 
(d) (1) The Committee shall be entitled by regulation, subpena, per^o'S^"°" *''°'" 
or otherwise, to obtain such information from, require such reports 
and the keeping of such records by, and make such inspection of the 
books, records, and other writings, premises or property of, any person 
as may be necessary or appropriate to carry out the provisions of this 
Act, but this authority shall not be exercised if adequate and authori-
tative data are available from any Federal agency. 
In case of con-
tumacy by, or refusal to obey a subpena served upon, any person 
referred to in this subsection, the district court of the United States 
for any district in which such person is found or resides or transacts 
business, upon application by the Committee, shall have jurisdiction 
to issue an order requiring such person to appear and give testimony 
or to appear and produce documents, or both; and any failure to obey 
such order of the court may be punished by such court as a contempt 
thereof. 
(2) The production of a person's books, records, or other documen-
tary evidence shall not be required at any place other than the place 
where such person usually keeps them, if, prior to the return date 
specified in the regulations, subpena, or other document issued with 
respect thereto, such person furnishes the Committee with a true copy 
of such books, records, or other documentary evidence (certified by 
such person under oath to be a true and correct copy) or enters into a 
stipulation with the Committee as to the information contained in such 
books, records, or other documentary evidence. Witnesses shall be paid 
witness fees, 
the same fees and mileage that are paid witnesses in the courts of the 
United States. 
(3) Any person who willfully performs any act prohibited or will- 
Penalty, 
fully fails to perform any act required by the above provisions of this 
subsection, or any rule, regulation, or order thereunder, shall upon 
conviction be fined not more than $500 for each offense. 
(4) Information obtained under this Act which the Committee £0?,^/^."*^^^ ^"" 
deems confidential for purposes of national security or other reasons 
or with reference to which a request for confidential treatment is made 
by the person or agency furnishing such information, shall not be 
published or disclosed unless the Committee determines that the with-
holding thereof is contrary to the purposes of this Act, and any 
member or employee of the Committee willfully violating this provi-
sion shall, upon conviction, be fined not more than $5,000. 
(e) The Committee shall be entitled to the free use of the United 
"'* "^ '"^"'' 
States mails in the same manner as the other executive agencies of 
the Government. 
SEC. 10. (a) The Committee shall from time to time submit a 
Repo't. 
report on its findings and recommendations to the President for 
submission to the Congress. At the earliest possible moment, the 
Committee shall submit a report to the President for submission to 
the Congress on the advisability of the Federal Government regulat-
ing, by means of licenses or otherwise, those who attempt to engage in 
activities designed to modify or control the weather. 
The Committee 
shall submit a final report to the President for submission to the 
Congress not later than June 30, 1956. 
(b) Thirty days after the Committee has submitted such final 
report to the President, the Committee shall cease to exist. 
SEC. 11. There are authorized to be appropriated, from any funds 
Appropriation, 
in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, such sums as the Congress 
may from time to time deem necessary to carry out the provisions 
of this Act. 
Approved August 13, 1953. 
T e r m i n a t l o n 
date.