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(3) one to be selected from a list of qualified individuals recommended by the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission;

(4) one to be selected from a list of qualified individuals recommended by the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, United States Senate;

(5) one to be selected from a list of qualified individuals recommended by the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, United States House of Representatives;

(6) three to be selected from lists of qualified individuals recommended by carriers and associations of carriers, not to include more than one representative from each of the three transportation modes, rail, motor, and water;

(7) four to be selected from lists of qualified individuals recommended by the agricultural community, including agricultural shippers and associations of shippers; and

(8) two to be selected from lists of qualified individuals recommended by the academic community.

(c) Within fifteen days after the enactment of this section, the Secretaries shall solicit recommendations from the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission; the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, United States Senate; and the chairman of the Committee on Agriculture, United States House of Representatives. The Secretaries shall cause notice to be published in the Federal Register soliciting recommendations from which to make the selections required under subparts (6), (7), and (8) of subsection (b) of this section.

(d) Vacancies on the Task Force shall be filled in the manner prescribed for original selections.

(e) Members of the Task Force who are full-time officers or employees of the United States shall receive no additional pay on account of this service on the Task Force. While away from their home or regular places of business in the performance of services for the Task Force members of the Task Force shall be allowed travel expenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, in the same manner as persons employed intermittently in the Government service are allowed expenses under section 5703 of title 5, United States Code.

(f) The Task Force shall be dissolved forty-five days after the publication of the final report required under section 4 of this Act.

(g) The Secretaries shall furnish such supplies and clerical, administrative, and other support as they deem necessary to enable the Task Force to carry out its responsibilities.

SEC. 3. (a) The Task Force may compile and publish an initial report which, if published, shall include recommendations for determining the essential transportation needs of agriculture on a continuing basis, for establishing a national agricultural transportation policy, and for methods of identifying impediments to a railroad transportation system adequate to meet the essential needs of the agriculture industry of the United States. Such report, if published, shall also include, but shall not be limited to, maps which identify the locations in the several States which the Task Force, on the basis of the importance of such locations within agricultural producing, marketing, or consuming areas, determines should re

ceive railroad service: Provided, That this directive is not to be construed as requiring comprehensive line-by-line analyses of all branch lines.

(b) The report authorized in section 3(a) shall, if published, be published not later than one hundred and eighty days after the date of enactment of this Act. The Task Force shall submit copies of such report, if published, to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate and the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives and shall provide for the widespread public dissemination of such report throughout the United States as soon as practicable after its publication.

(c) Within ninety days after the publication of the initial report described in section 3(a), or if such report is not published, within two hundred and seventy days after enactment of this Act, the Task Force shall announce dates for and hold public hearings at various locations throughout the United States, take such testimony and receive such evidence as it considers advisable for the purpose of obtaining the views of interested persons on such initial report or, if such report is not published, on recommendations for the final report required under this Act.

(d) Within one hundred and twenty days after the publication of the initial report described in section 3(a) or, if such report is not published, within three hundred days after enactment of this Act, the Task Force shall prepare and publish a summary of the testimony presented at such hearings, and shall provide for the widespread public dissemination of such summary as soon as possible following the publication thereof.

SEC. 4. (a) The Task Force shall prepare and publish, within four hundred and twenty days after the date of enactment of this Act, a final report including recommendations for determining the essential needs of agriculture on a continuing basis, for establishing national agricultural transportation policy, for methods of identifying impediments to a railroad transportation system adequate to meet the essential needs of the agriculture industry, and containing specific recommendations for a railroad transportation system adequate to meet the essential needs of the agriculture industry of the United States. In preparing such final report, the Task Force shall take into consideration the testimony received at the public hearing required under this Act.

(b) Copies of such final report shall be submitted to the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry of the Senate, the Committee on Agriculture of the House of Representatives, and the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission. The Task Force shall provide for the widespread public dissemination of such final report.

SEC. 5. The provisions of this Act shall become effective October 1, 1978.

PART VIII. SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION

SOIL CONSERVATION AND DOMESTIC ALLOTMENT ACT

Act of April 27, 1935, ch. 85, 49 Stat. 163, 16 U.S.C. 590a et seq. AN ACT To provide for the protection of land resources against soil erosion, and for other purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it is hereby recognized that the wastage of soil and moisture resources on farm, grazing, and forest lands of the Nation, resulting from soil erosion, is a menace to the national welfare and that it is hereby declared to be the policy of Congress to provide permanently for the control and prevention of soil erosion and thereby to preserve natural resources, control floods, prevent impairment of reservoirs, and maintain the navigability of rivers and harbors, protect public health, public lands and relieve unemployment, and the Secretary of Agriculture, from now on, shall coordinate and direct all activities with relation to soil erosion and in order to effectuate this policy is hereby authorized, from time to time

(1) To conduct surveys, investigations, and research relating to the character of soil erosion and the preventive measures needed, to publish the results of any such surveys, investigations, or research, to disseminate information concerning such methods, and to conduct demonstrational projects in areas subject to erosion by wind or water:

(2) To carry out preventive measures, including, but not limited to, engineering operations, methods of cultivation, the growing of vegetation, and changes in use of land;

(3) To cooperate or enter into agreements with, or to furnish financial or other aid to, any agency, governmental or otherwise, or any person, subject to such conditions as he may deem necessary, for the purposes of this Act; and

(4) To acquire lands, or rights or interests therein, by purchase, gift, condemnation, or otherwise, whenever necessary for the purposes of this Act.

SEC. 2.1 The acts authorized in section 1 (1) and (2) may be performed

(a) On lands owned or controlled by the United States or any of its agencies, with the cooperation of the agency having jurisdiction thereof; and

(b) On any other lands, upon obtaining proper consent or the necessary rights or interests in such lands.

SEC. 3.2 As a condition to the extending of any benefits under this Act to any lands not owned or controlled by the United States

1 16 U.S.C. 590b.

2 16 U.S.C. 590c.

of any of its agencies, the Secretary of Agriculture may, insofar as he may deem necessary for the purposes of this Act, require

(1) The enactment and reasonable safeguards for the enforcement of State and local laws imposing suitable permanent restrictions on the use of such lands and otherwise providing for the prevention of soil erosion;

(2) Agreements or covenants as to the permanent use of such lands; and

(3) Contributions in money, services, materials, or otherwise, to any operations conferring such benefits.

SEC. 4.3 For the purposes of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture may

(1) Secure the cooperation of any governmental agency;

(2) Subject to the provisions of the civil-service laws and the Classification Act of 1923, as amended, appoint and fix the compensation of such officers and employees as he may deem necessary, except for a period not to exceed eight months from the date of this enactment, the Secretary of Agriculture may make appointments and may continue employees of the organization heretofore established for the purpose of administering those provisions of the National Industrial Recovery Act which relate to the prevention of soil erosion, without regard to the civil-service laws or regulations and the Classification Act, as amended; and any persons with technical or practical knowledge may be employed and compensated under this Act on a basis to be determined by the Civil Service Commission; and

(3) Make expenditures for personal services and rent in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, for the purchase of law books and books of reference, for printing and binding, for the purchase, operation, and maintenance of passenger-carrying vehicles, and perform such acts, and prescribe such regulations, as he may deem proper to carry out the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 5.4 The Secretary of Agriculture shall establish an agency to be known as the "Soil Conservation Service", to exercise the powers conferred on him by this Act and may utilize the organization heretofore established for the purpose of administering_those provisions of sections 202 and 203 of the National Industrial Recovery Act which relate to the prevention of soil erosion, together with such personnel thereof as the Secretary of Agriculture may determine, and all unexpended balances of funds heretofore alloted to said organization shall be available until June 30, 1937, and the Secretary of Agriculture shall assume all obligations incurred by said organization prior to transfer to the Department of Agriculture. Funds provided in H. J. Res. 117, "An Act making appropriation for relief purposes" (for soil erosion) shall be available for expenditure under the provisions of this Act; and in order that there may be proper coordination of erosion-control activities the Secretary of Agriculture may transfer to the agency created under this Act such functions, funds, personnel, and property of other agen

3 16 U.S.C. 590d.

cies in the Department of Agriculture as he may from time to time determine.

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SEC. 7.5 (a) It is hereby declared to be the policy of this Act also to secure, and the purposes of this Act shall also include, (1) preservation and improvement of soil fertility; (2) promotion of the economic use and conservation of land; (3) diminution of exploitation and wasteful and unscientific use of national soil resources; (4) the protection of rivers and harbors against the results of soil erosion in aid of maintaining the navigability of waters and water courses and in aid of flood control; (5) reestablishment, at as rapid a rate as the Secretary of Agriculture determines to be practicable and in the general public interest, of the ratio between the purchasing power of the net income per person on farms and that of the income per person not on farms that prevailed during the five-year period August 1909-July 1914, inclusive, as determined from statistics available in the United States Department of Agriculture, and the maintenance of such ratio; and (6) prevention and abatement of agricultural-related pollution. The powers conferred under sections 7 to 14, inclusive, of this Act shall be used to assist voluntary action calculated to effectuate the purposes specified in this section. Such powers shall not be used to discourage the production of supplies of foods and fibers sufficient to maintain normal domestic human consumption as determined by the Secretary from the records of domestic human consumption in the years 1920 to 1929, inclusive, taking into consideration increased population, quantities of any commodity that were forced into domestic consumption by decline in exports during such period, current trends in domestic consumption and exports of particular commodities, and the quantities of substitutes available for domestic consumption within any general class of food commodities. In carrying out the purposes of this section due regard shall be given to the maintenance of a continuous and stable supply of agricultural commodities adequate to meet consumer demand at prices fair to both producers and con

sumers.

*

SEC. 9.6 The Secretary is authorized to conduct surveys, investigations, and research relating to the conditions and factors affecting, and methods of accomplishing most effectively, the policy and purposes of section 7(a). Notwithstanding any provision of existing law, the Secretary is authorized to make public such information as he deems necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act. The Secretary shall transmit to the Congress a report, for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1937, and for each fiscal year thereafter, of the operations for such year under sections 7 to 14, inclusive, of this Act, which report shall include a statement of the expenditures made and obligations incurred, by classes and amounts.

5 16 U.S.C. 590g. Added by the Act of February 29, 1936, ch. 104, section 1, 49 Stat 1148. Amended by the Act of September 27, 1962, Public Law 87-703, 76 Stat. 605, which deleted subsections (b) through (g), and the Act of August 30, 1972, Public Law 92-419, 86 Stat. 676, which added "(6) prevention and abatement of agricultural-related pollution.".

616 U.S.C. 590i. Added by the Act of February 29, 1936, ch. 104, section 1, 49 Stat 1150, and amended by the Act of June 28, 1937, ch. 395, section 2, 50 Stat. 329, to add the last sentence.

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