An Act creating a Federal commission to formulate plans for the construction in the District of Columbia of a civic auditorium, including an Inaugural Hall of Presidents and a music, fine arts, and mass communications center
PL 84-128 (H.R.1825), enacted 07/01/1955

69 S T A T . } 
PUBLIC LAW 128-JULY 1, 1955 
243 
established within the individual areas administered by the Secretary 
of the Interior through the National Park Service as a means of 
informing the public concerning the areas and preserving valuable 
objects and relics relating thereto. The Secretary of the Interior, 
notwithstanding other provisions or limitations of law, may perform 
the following functions in such manner as he shall consider to be in 
the public interest: 
(a) Accept donations and bequests of money or other personal 
property, and hold, use, expend, and administer the same for purposes 
of this Act; 
(b) Purchase from such donations and bequests of money museum 
objects, museum collections, and other personal properties at prices 
he considers to be reasonable; 
(c) Make exchanges by accepting museum objects, museum collec-
tions, and other personal properties, and by granting in exchange 
therefor museum property under the administrative jurisdiction of 
the Secretary which is no longer needed or which may be held in 
duplicate among the museum properties administered by the Secre-
tary, such exchanges to be consummated on a basis which the Secre-
tary considers to be equitable and in the public interest; 
(d) Accept the loan of museum objects, museum collections, and 
other personal properties and pay transportation costs incidental 
thereto, such loans to be accepted upon terms and conditions which 
he shall consider necessary; and 
(e) I^an to responsible public or private organizations, institu-
tions, or agencies, without cost to the United States, such museum 
objects, museum collections, and other personal property as he shall 
consider advisable, such loans to be made upon terms and conditions 
which he shall consider necessary to protect the public interest in 
such properties. 
Approved July 1, 1955. 
Public Law 128 
CHAPTER 260 
AN ACT 
Creating a Federal commission to formulate plans for the construction in the 
District of Columbia of a civic auditorium, including an Inaugural Hall of 
Presidents and a music, fine arts, and mass communications center. 
July 1, 1955 
[H. R. 1825] 
Be it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled^ That (a) there is co 
hereby established a commission to be known as the "District of 
Columbia Auditorium Commission'' (hereinafter referred to as the 
"Commission") for the purpose of formulating plans for the design, 
location, financing, and construction in the District of Columbia of a 
civic auditorium, including an Inaugural Hall of Presidents and a 
music, fine arts, and mass communications center. 
(b) The Commission shall be composed of twenty-one members 
appointed as follows: 
(1) Seven persons appointed by the President of the United States; 
(2) Seven persons appointed by the President of the Senate; and 
(3) Seven persons appointed by the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives. 
(c) The Commission shall— 
(1) 
consider a suitable site for the civic auditorium referred 
to in subsection (a) ; 
(2) procure such plans and designs and make such surveys and 
estimates of the cost thereof as it deems advisable; 
D. C. Auditorium: 
mmission. 
In augural Hall 
of Presidents. 
244 
PUBLIC LAW 129-JULY 1, 1955 
[69 ST A T . 
C 
ontribut ions. 
Assistance a n d 
advice> 
Pay; expenses. 
Expenditures. 
Appropriation. 
(3) endeavor particularly to formulate a method of tinancing 
the project on a self-liquidating basis; and 
(4) make a report to the President and to the Congress, to-
gether with its recommendations, by February 1,1956. 
(d) The Commission is authorized to accept in its discretion from 
any source, public or private, money and property to be used in carry-
ing out its functions under this Act. 
(e) The Commission is authorized to avail itself of the assistance 
and advice of the Commission of Fine Arts, the National Capital 
Planning Commission, the National Capital Regional Planning Coun-
cil, the Board of Commissioners of the District of Columbia, the 
District of Columbia Recreation Board, and the District of Columbia 
Redevelopment Land Agency, which shall upon request render such 
assistance and advice. 
SEC. 2. (a) The members of the (Commission shall serve without 
compensation; but travel, subsistence, and other necessary expenses 
incurred by them in connection with the work of the Commission may 
be paid from any funds available for expenditure by the (Commission. 
(b) The Commission is authorized, within the limits of funds avail-
able to it, to employ and fix the compensation of such officers, experts, 
and other employees as may be necessary to carry out its functions, 
and to make such other expenditures as it may deem advisable in 
carrying out its functions. 
SEC. 3. Theie are hereby authorized to be appropriated such sums, 
not to exceed $'25,000, as may be necessary to carry out the provisions 
of this Act. 
Approved July 1, 1955. 
July 1, 1955 
[H. R. 
" 
Public Law 129 
CHAPTER 261 
AN ACT 
^^^^•* 
To authorize certain sums to be appropriated immediately for the completion of 
the construction of the Inter-American Highway. 
Int e r-American 
Highway. 
Appropriation. 
68 Stat. 73. 
Post, 
p. 452. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of .Representatives of the 
United States 
of America 
in Congress assembled, That the sum 
authorized in section 7 of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1954 
(68 Stat. 70) for the Inter-American Highway for each of the fiscal 
years ending June 30, 1957, 1958, and 1959, is hereby authorized for 
appropriation immediately, to be available until expended, and the 
additional sum of $25,730,0()() is hereby authorized for appropriation 
immediately, to be available until expended, for the purposes of and 
in accordance with the provisions of said section 7. 
Approved July 1, 1955. 
July 4, 1955 
[H.R. 103] 
Public Law 130 
CHAPTER271 
AN ACT 
To provide for the construction of distribution systems on authorized Federal 
reclamation projects by irrigation districts and other public agencies. 
Irrigation distri-
bution systems. 
43 u s e 371. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and Hmise of Representatives 
of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, That irrigation dis-
tribution systems avithorized to be constructed under the Federal 
reclamation laws may, in lieu of construction by the Secretary of the 
Interior (referred to in this Act as the "Secretary"), be constructed 
by irrigation districts or other public agencies according to plans and 
specifications approved by the Secretary as provided in this Act.