810.154/4–2247
The Administrator of the Federal Works Agency (Fleming) to the Secretary of State
Sir: The Independent Offices Appropriation Act for the fiscal year 1946, approved May 3, 1945 (59 Stat. 117), appropriated for the Inter-American Highway $1,000,000 of the $20,000,000 authorized by the Act of December 26, 1941 (Public Law 375).2 This appropriation, however, was made subject to the condition imposed by the following proviso:
“Provided, That no part of the appropriation made in this paragraph for use in any cooperating country shall be available for obligation or expenditure unless said cooperating country executes a written agreement that it will impose no restrictions on the use of the highway, nor levy directly or indirectly any tax or charge for such use, by traffic or vehicles from any other country that do not apply with equal force to the like use of the highway by traffic or vehicles of the cooperating country.”
Three previous acts already had appropriated a total of $14,000,000 of the $20,000,000 authorization, and the act for the fiscal year 1947 appropriated the final $5,000,000. None of these latter four acts carried the above quoted proviso. The proviso, therefore, might reasonably be construed to apply only to the one million dollar appropriation for the fiscal year 1946.
As of March 18, 1947, we had expended a total of $12,078,632 of the $20,000,000 appropriated. We, therefore, have not expended any of the one million dollars appropriated for the fiscal year 1946. Before reaching a point where disbursements against this latter appropriation may be made it appears necessary to bring to the attention of the Governments of Panama and of each of the Central American countries the condition attached by the statute to its expenditure and to secure their assent to a modification of our original agreements with [Page 146] them so as to include an appropriate paragraph, or by otherwise securing an agreement, that will meet such condition.
As this is a new requirement of legislation it appears to be within the purview of the State Department to bring the statute and its implications to the attention of the Governments concerned. It, therefore, is requested that you take such action in the matter as appears to you desirable.
For your information, you have previously been furnished with copies of Project Statements and Memoranda of Understanding executed with each of the countries referred to and you may conclude that an amendment of each to incorporate therein the substance of the legal requirement quoted above may adequately accomplish the purpose of the law, or you may consider some other method for meeting the requirement by securing a new agreement through diplomatic correspondence.
In any case, your attention is especially invited to the phrase “from any other country” which appears in the above quoted proviso. There may be a question whether a written understanding between any one of the above governments mentioned and the United States may create such an obligation as that contemplated with respect to other such governments. We can undoubtedly enter into an understanding, with any such government with respect to traffic or vehicles from the United States but whether such agreement could have any application to traffic or vehicles from any other country is a matter which we think should have your careful consideration.
It is requested that you advise the Public Roads Administration of the form of action you believe should be taken in this matter.
Sincerely yours,
Major General, U.S.A.
- 55 Stat. 860.↩