Volume 39 · 388
Public Law 64–252
Creating a joint subcommittee from the membership of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce and the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to investigate the conditions relating to interstate and foreign commerce, and the necessity of further legislation relating thereto, and defining the powers and duties of such subcommittee.
Approved July 20, 1916
Statutory text
An Act
Creating a joint subcommittee from the membership of the Senate Committee on Interstate Commerce and the House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to investigate the conditions relating to interstate and foreign commerce, and the necessity of further legislation relating thereto, and defining the powers and duties of such subcommittee.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
That the Interstate Commerce
Interstate and foreign commerce.
Investigation of conditions, etc., by joint Congressional committee.
Subjects designated.
Post, p. 866.
Committee of the Senate and the Committee of the House of Representatives on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, through a joint subcommittee to consist of five Senators and five Representatives, who shall be selected by said committees, respectively, be, and they hereby are, appointed to investigate the subject of the Government control and regulation of interstate and foreign transportation, the efficiency of the existing system in protecting the rights of shippers and carriers and in promoting the public interest, the incorporation or control of the incorporation of carriers, and all proposed changes in the organization of the Interstate Commerce Commission and the Act to regulate commerce, also the subject of Government ownership of all public utilities, such as telegraph, wireless, cable, telephone, express companies, and railroads engaged in interstate and foreign commerce and report as to the wisdom or feasibility of Government ownership of such utilities and as to the comparative worth and efficiency of Government regulation and control as compared with Government
Authority, etc.
ownership and operation, with authority to sit during the recess of Congress and with power to summon witnesses, to administer oaths, and to require the various departments, commissions, and other Government agencies of the United States to furnish such information and render such assistance as may, in the judgment of the joint subcommittee, be deemed desirable, to appoint necessary experts, clerks, and stenographers, and to do whatever is necessary for a full and comprehensive
Report.
examination and study of the subject and report to Congress on or before the second Monday in January, nineteen hundred
Appropriation.
and seventeen; that the sum of $24,000, or so much thereof as is necessary to carry out the purposes of this resolution and to pay the necessary expenses of the subcommittee and its members, is hereby appropriated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. Said appropriation shall be immediately available and shall be paid out on the audit and order of the chairman or acting chairman of said subcommittee, which audit and order shall be conclusive and binding upon all departments as to the correctness of the accounts of such subcommittee.
Approved, July 20, 1916.