Joint resolution authorizing and directing the Secretary of the Interior to liquidate the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration
PL 83-276 (S.J.Res.98), enacted 08/15/1953

584 
PUBLIC LAW 275-AUG. 14, 1953 
[67 ST A T . 
Applicability. 
"(j) 
ABATEMENT IF JEOPARDY DOES NOT EXIST.—The Secretary 
may 
abate the jeopardy assessment if he finds that jeopardy does not exist. 
Such abatement may not be made after a decision of The Tax Court 
of the United States in respect of the deficiency has been rendered or, if 
no petition is filed with The Tax Court of the United States, after 
the expiration of the period for filing such petition. The period of 
limitation on the making of assessments and the beginning of distraint 
or a proceeding in court for collection, in respect of any deficiency, 
shall be determined as if the jeopardy assessment so abated had not 
been made, except that the running of such period shall in any event 
be suspended for the period from the date of such jeopardy assessment 
until the expiration of the tenth day after the day on which such 
jeopardy assessment is abated." 
(c) The amendments made by this Act shall be applicable to jeop-
ardy assessments made or in existence on the date of enactment of this 
Act or which are thereafter made. 
Approved August 14, 1953. 
« 
Public Law 275 
CHAPTER 489 
August 14, 1953 
[H. J. Res. 268] 
K e n t u c k y and 
Virginia. 
Park compact. 
JOINT RESOLUTION 
Granting the consent of Congress to the negotiation of a compact relating to 
the establishment of a bi-State park and/or recreational area by the States of 
Kentucky and Virginia. 
Resolved hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the United 
States of America in Congress assemhled^ That the consent of Congress 
is hereby given to the States of Kentucky and Virginia to negotiate 
and enter into a compact providing for the development of the Breaks 
on the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River, as a bi-State park. 
Such 
compact shall not be binding or obligatory upon any of the parties 
thereto unless and until it shall have been ratified by the legislatures 
of the States of Kentucky and Virginia and approved by the Congress 
of the United States. 
Approved August 14, 1953. 
August 15, 1953 
[S. J. R e s . 98] 
Public Law 276 
CHAPTER 501 
JOINT RESOLUTION 
Authorizing and directing the Secretary of the Interior to liquidate the Puerto 
Rico Reconstruction Administration. 
Whereas the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration was estab-
lished as an agency of the Department of the Interior by Executive 
Order Numbered 7057 of May 28, 1935, under authority of the 
49 Stat. 115. 
Emergency Relief Appropriation Act of 1935, "to initiate, formu-
late, administer, and supervise a program of approved projects for 
providing relief and work relief and for increasing employment 
within Puerto Rico"; and 
Whereas, from 1935 to 1942, the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Admin-
istration engaged in activities such as health, sanitation, urban and 
rural housing, demonstration farming, public works, work relief, 
construction of hydroelectric plants and distribution lines, develop-
* .' r ; 
ment of home and heavy industrj'^, loans to farmers and cooperatives 
and research; and 
Whereas, since 1942, the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration 
has engaged in no new activities and it has been primarily con-
cerned with management of rural and urban housing projects. 
67 S T A T . ] 
PUBLIC LAW 276-AUG. 15, 1953 
585 
including the collection of rents, mortgage installments and notes, 
and maintenance and repairs to buildings, collection and servicing 
of loans to cooperatives, and operation of a coffee plantation and 
coffee processing plants; and 
Whereas the Act of February 11, 1936 (49 Stat. 1135), established a 
revolving fund out of which the activities of the Puerto Kico Recon-
struction Administration have been financed, directed that said fund 
remain available until the Congress should otherwise provide, and 
authorize the continuation of any agency established to administer 
that fund as long as the fund remained available for expenditures; 
and 
Whereas the purposes for which the Puerto Rico Reconstruction 
Administration was created have long since been accomplished and 
the activities in which it is now engaged are costly to the United 
States, are to some extent in competition with private enterprise, 
and are of such a nature that they could and should be taken over 
by private capital or by agencies of the Commonwealth of Puerto 
Rico; and 
Whereas the Secretary of the Interior and the Comptroller General 
of the United States have recommended that the Puerto Rico Recon-
struction Administration be liquidated forthwith: Therefore, be it 
Resolved hy the SenMe and House of Representatives 
of the United 
States of America in Congress assemhled^ That the Secretary of the 
Interior, through such officers, agents, or employees as he may desig-
nate, is hereby authorized and directed td liquidate the agency known 
as the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration established by 
Executive Order Numbered 7057 of May 28, 1935, in accordance with 
the terms of this joint resolution. 
SEC. 2. Disposition of all property of the Puerto Rico Reconstruc-
tion Administration, pursuant to the terms of this joint resolution, 
shall be completed within eighteen months from the date of enact-
ment of this joint resolution, and all functions and activities of the 
Administration shall cease by that date. 
SEC. 3. The authority contained herein to liquidate the Puerto Rico 
Reconstruction Administration shall include authority to sell, trans-
fer, or otherwise dispose of, upon such terms and at such discounts as 
the Secretary of the Interior may deem advantageous to the United 
States, all property, real, personal, or mixed, and any interest in or 
control over such property, owned by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction 
Administration, or owned by the United States and under the admin-
istrative jurisdiction of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administra-
tion. 
Such sale, transfer, or other disposition may be made without 
regard to the provisions of the Federal Property and Administrative 
Services Act of 1949, as amended. 
Disposition of the properties may 
be made to private individuals, or associations of individuals: Pro-
vided, That the Secretary of the Interior shall in all instances offer first 
opportunity to persons living in, on, or in the vicinity of the said 
properties, and the next opportunity to veterans, to acquire them on 
terms not incompatible with the interests of the United States: And 
provided further, That loans to cooperatives may be transferred for 
collection to any agency of the United States. 
SEC. 4. (a) Effective upon the date of enactment of this joint reso-
lution, all restrictions, not otherwise required by any law of the United 
States or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, imposed by and contained 
in any deed of conveyance executed prior to that date by the Puerto 
Rico Reconstruction Administration and as to which all liens enu-
merated therein have been satisfied or may be satisfied during the 
period of liquidation prescribed by this joint resolution, shall be null 
IS u s e 721-728. 
Puerto Rico Re-
construction 
A d -
minis tration. 
Liquidation. 
Termination. 
D i s p o s ition of 
property. 
63 Stat. 377. 
40 u s e 471 note. 
D e e d s of con-
veyance. 
Restrictions. 
586 
PUBLIC LAW 277-AUG. 15, 1953 
[67 S T A T . 
Proceeds 
f r o m 
s a l e s , transfers, 
etc. 
15 u s e 721-728. 
R e p o r t to Con-
gress. 
and void and of no effect immediately or upon the satisfaction of said 
liens, as the case may be, and thereafter the owner of property de-
scribed in any such deed may use, transfer, mortgage, lease, sell, or 
otherwise encumber or dispose of said property without regard to 
such restrictions. 
(b) The Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration shall not 
impose, in any deed of conveyance executed by it during the period 
of liquidation prescribed by this joint resolution, any restrictions 
except such restrictions as may be required by the laws of the United 
States or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. 
SEC. 5. There shall be deposited in the Treasury of the United 
States, as miscellaneous receipts, (a) any and all proceeds from the 
sale, transfer, or other disposition of the properties and interests 
aforesaid, (b) the balance remaining in the so-called revolving fund 
established by the Act of February 11,1936 (49 Stat. 1135), after costs 
of liquidation, salaries of employees, and other similar obligations, 
are paid, and (c) all sums realized from the liquidation of accounts 
receivable. 
SEC. 6. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized and empowered 
to do all necessary acts and things in addition to those specifically 
authorized in this joint resolution to enable him to accomplish the 
purposes thereof. 
SEC. 7. The Secretary of the Interior shall, upon completion of the 
liquidation as directed by this joint resolution, submit a report thereon 
to the Congress of the United States, reciting the disposition made 
of properties and moneys. 
Approved August 15, 1953. 
. , 
. . . . 
August 15, 1953 
[H. R. 1055] 
Public Law 277 
CHAPTER 502 
AN ACT 
To eliminate certain discriminatory legislation against Indians in the 
United States. 
I n d i a n 1 i quor 
laws. 
62 Stat. 75 7. 
Be it enacted hy the Seimte and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That chapter 53 of 
title 18, United States Code, is hereby amended by inserting at the 
end of the chapter analysis preceding section 1151 of such title the 
following new item: 
"1161. Application of Indian liquor laws." 
' 
' 
' 
SEC. 2. Title 18, United States Code, is hereby further amended by 
inserting in chapter 53 thereof immediately after section 1160 a new 
section, to be designated as section 1161, as follows: 
"§ 1161. Application of Indian liquor laws 
"The provisions of sections 1154,1156, 3113, 3488, and 3618, of this 
title, shall not apply within any area that is not Indian country, nor to 
any act or transaction within any area of Indian country provided 
such act or transaction is in conformity both with the laws of the State 
in which such act or transaction occurs and with an ordinance duly 
adopted by the tribe having jurisdiction over such area of Indian 
country, certified by the Secretary of the Interior, and published in 
the Federal Register." 
SEC. 3. The consent of the United States is hereby given to repeal 
of the third and eleventh paragraphs of article 20 of the constitution 
of Arizona, and that part of section 1 of article 21 of the constitution