BILLS TO PROVIDE FOR THE REGIONAL CONSERVATION
AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE NATIONAL RESOURCES
AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

The committee met at 10:30 a. m., Hon. Joseph J. Mansfield
(chairman), presiding.

The CHAIRMAN. We will begin hearings this morning on H. R.

7365, introduced by me as chairman of the committee, to provide for

the regional conservation and development of the national resources,

and for other purposes; and H. R. 7863, introduced by Mr. Rankin,

of Mississippi, to provide for the creation of conservation authorities,

and for other purposes.

(H. R. 7365 reads as follows:)

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A BILL To provide for the regional conservation and development of the national resources, and for other

purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of

America in Congress assembled, That this Act may be cited as the Regional Con-

servation Act of 1937.

TITLE I

PURPOSE AND POLICY OF THE ACT

SECTION 1. It is the purpose and policy of this Act to develop, integrate, and

coordinate plans, projects, and activities for or incidental to the promotion of

navigation, the control and prevention of floods, the safeguarding of navigable

waters, and the reclamation of the public lands, in order to aid and protect com-

merce among the several States, to strengthen the national defense, to conserve

the water, soil, mineral, and forest resources of the Nation, to stabilize employ-

ment and relieve unemployment, and otherwise to protect commerce among the

States, provide for the national defense, and promote the general welfare of the

United States.

REGIONAL PLANNING AGENCIES

SEC. 2. To carry out the purposes of this Act, there are hereby created the

following regional planning agencies, which shall be agencies and instrumentalities

of the United States: (1) Atlantic Seaboard Planning Agency, for the drainage

basins in the United States of the rivers flowing into the Atlantic Ocean and of

the rivers flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, from the east, below the basin of the

Suwannee River; (2) Great Lakes-Ohio Valley Planning Agency, for the drainage

basins in the United States of the rivers flowing into any of the Great Lakes and

of the Ohio River, except the drainage basins of the Tennessee and Cumberland

Rivers and of the rivers flowing into the Mississippi River above Cairo, Illinois,

from the east; (3) Tennessee Valley Planning Agency, for the drainage basins of

the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, of the rivers flowing into the Mississippi

River below Cairo, Illinois, from the east, and of the rivers flowing into the Gulf

of Mexico east of the Mississippi River, except the rivers below the basin of the

Suwannee River; (4) Missouri Valley Planning Agency, for the drainage basins

within the United States of the Missouri River and the Red River of the North

and of the rivers flowing into the Mississippi River above Cairo, Illinois, from the

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