BRIDGE ACROSS MISSOURI RIVER AT OR NEAR O'HERN STREET, SOUTH OMAHA, NEBR. FEBRUARY 5, 1931.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed Mr. MILLIGAN, from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 16421] The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom waз referred the bill (H. R. 16421) authorizing the cities of Omaha, Nebr., and Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the counties of Douglas, Nebr., and Pottawattamie, Iowa, to construct, maintain, and operate a toll or free bridge across the Missouri River at or near O'Hern Street, South Omaha, Nebr., having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it pass. The bill has the approval of the War and Agriculture Departments, as will appear by the letters attached. WAR DEPARTMENT, January 28, 1931. Respectfully returned to the chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives. So far as the interests committed to this department are concerned, I know of no objection to the favorable consideration of the accompanying bill (H. R. 16421, 71st Cong., 3d sess.) authorizing the cities of Omaha, Nebr., and Council Bluffs, Iowa, and the counties of Douglas, Nebr., and Pottawattomie, Iowa to construct a bridge across the Missouri River at or near O'Hern Street, South Omaha, Nebr. PATRICK J. HURLEY, Secretary of War. Hon. JAMES S. PARKER, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Washington, D. C., February 4, 1981. House of Representatives. Chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, DEAR MR. PARKER: Careful consideration has been given to the bill H. R. 16421 transmitted with your letter of January 23 with request for a report thereon and such views relative thereto as the department might desire to communicate. This bill would authorize the city of Omaha, Nebr., or Douglas County, Nebr., or the city of Council Bluffs, Iowa, or Pottawattamie County, Iowa, or any two or more of them cooperating, to construct, maintain, and operate a bridge and approaches thereto across the Missouri River, at or near O'Hern Street, South Omaha, Nebr. If the proposed bridge should be operated as a toll bridge, the rates of toll would be required under the provisions of the bill to be so adjusted as to provide a fund sufficient to pay annual maintenance, repair, and operation costs, and create a sinking fund sufficient to amortize the construction cost of such bridge and its approaches within a period of not to exceed 15 years from the date of completion or acquisition thereof. Section 5 would authorize the transfer to the States of Nebraska and Iowa, or to the highway departments of said States, of all rights, powers, and privileges which would be conferred by the bill, and would prohibit any other assignment, conveyance, or transfer thereof. A bridge constructed at the point proposed would serve to connect the system of Federal-aid highways as approved for the States of Iowa and Nebraska. The department would recommend favorable action on the bill. Sincerely, O R. W. DUNLAP, Acting Secretary. BRIDGE ACROSS ST. CLAIR RIVER AT OR NEAR PORT HURON, MICH. FEBRUARY 5, 1931.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed Mr. MAPES, from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, submitted the following REPORT [To accompany H. R. 16471] The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 16471) to extend the times for commencing and completing the construction of a bridge across the St. Clair River at or near Port Huron, Mich., having considered and amended the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it pass. Amend the bill as follows: Line 8, strike out the figures "1930" and insert the figures "1931" in lieu thereof. The bill has the approval of the War and Agriculture Departments, as will appear by the letters attached. WAR DEPARTMENT, January 28, 1931. Respectfully returned to the chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives. So far as the interest committed to this department are concerned, I know of no objection to the favorable consideration of the accompanying bill (H. R. 16471, 71st Cong., 3d sess.) to extend the times for commencing and completing the construction of a bridge across the St. Clair River at or near Port Huron, Mich., if amended as indicated in red thereon. PATRICK J. HURLEY, Hon. JAMES S. PARKER, DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, Chairman Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, House of Representatives. DEAR MR. PARKER: Careful consideration has been given to the bill (H. R. 16471), transmitted with your letter of January 23 with request for a report thereon and such views relative thereto as the department might desire to communicate. This bill would extend for one and three years, respectively, from June 25, 1930, the times for commencing and completing the construction of the bridge across the St. Clair River at or near Port Huron, Mich., authorized by act of Congress approved June 25, 1930, to be built by the Great Lakes Bridge Commission. The intent of the bill evidently was to make the proposed extension of time from June 25, 1931, rather than from June 25, 1930. When the bill to authorize the construction of this bridge by a commission such as that created for its construction by the act of June 25, 1930, was pending before your committee, this department made a favorable report thereon. There is no objection, therefore, to the proposed extension of time so far as the department is concerned. Sincerely, R. W. DUNLAP, Acting Secretary. The act of Congress approved June 25, 1930, is as follows: [PUBLIC NO. 433-71ST CONGRESS] [S. 4722] AN ACT Creating the Great Lakes Bridge Commission and authorizing said commission and its successors to construct, maintain, and operate a bridge across the Saint Clair River at or near Port Huron. Michigan Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in order to facilitate international commerce, the Great Lakes Bridge Commission, hereinafter created, and hereinafter referred to as the commission, and its successors and assigns, be, and are hereby, authorized to construct, maintain, and operate a bridge and approaches thereto across the Saint Clair River, at or near the city of Port Huron, Michigan, and the city of Sarnia, Canada, at a point suitable to the interests of navigation, in accordance with the provisions of an act entitled "An act to regulate the construction of bridges over navigable waters," approved March 23, 1906, subject to the conditions and limitations contained in this act, and subject to the approval of the proper authorities in the Dominion of Canada. For like purposes said commission and its successors are hereby authorized to purchase, maintain, and operate all or any ferries across the Saint Clair River within five miles of the location which shall be selected for said bridge, subject to the conditions and limitations contained in this act, and subject to the approval of the proper authorities in the Dominion of Canada. SEC. 2. There is hereby conferred upon the commission and its successors and assigns all such rights and powers to enter upon lands and to acquire, condemn, occupy, possess, and use such real estate and other property in the State of Michigan as may be needed for the location, construction, operation, and maintenance of such bridge and its approaches as are possessed by railroad corporations for railroad purposes or by bridge corporations for bridge purposes in the State of Michigan, upon making just compensation therefor, to be ascertained and paid according to the laws of such State, and the proceedings therefor shall be the same as in the condemnation of private property for public purposes in such State, and the commission and its successors or assigns may exercise in the Dominion of Canada all rights, powers, and authority which shall be granted or permitted to the commission by the proper authorities of the Dominion of Canada or of the Province of Ontario, including the entering upon lands and acquiring, condemning, occupying, possessing, and using such real estate and other property in the Dominion of Canada as may be needed for such location, construction, operation, and maintenance of such bridge. SEC. 3. The commission and its successors and assigns are hereby authorized to fix and charge tolls for transit over such bridge and such ferry or ferries in accordance with the provisions of this act. SEC. 4. The commission and its successors and assigns are hereby authorized to provide for the payment of the cost of the bridge and its approaches and the ferry or ferries and the necessary lands, easements, and appurtenances thereto by an issue or issues of bonds of the commission, upon approval by the Michigan Public Utilities Commission, bearing interest at not more than 6 per centum per annum, payable annually or at shorter intervals, maturing not more than thirty years from their date of issuance, such bonds and the interest thereon, and any premium to be paid for retirement thereof before maturity, to be payable solely from the sinking fund provided in accordance with this act. Such bonds may be registerable as to principal alone or both principal and interest, and shall be in such form not inconsistent with this act, and be payable at such place or places as the commission may determine. The commission may repurchase and may reserve the right to redeem all or any of said bonds before maturity at prices not exceeding one hundred and five and accrued interest. The commission may enter into an agreement with any bank or trust company in the United States as trustee having the power to make such agreement, setting forth the duties of the commission in respect of the construction, maintenance, operation, repair, and insurance of the bridge and/or the ferry or ferries, the conservation and application of all funds, the safeguarding of moneys on hand or on deposit, and the rights and remedies of said trustee and the holders of the bonds, restricting the individual right of action of the bondholders as is customary in trust agreements respecting bonds of corporations. Such trust agreement may contain such provision for protecting and enforcing the rights and remedies of the trustee and the bondholders as may be reasonable and proper and not inconsistent with the law and also a provision for approval by the original purchasers of the bonds of the employment of consulting engineers and of the security given by bridge contractors and by any bank or trust company in which the proceeds of bonds or of bridge and/or ferry tolls or other moneys of the commission shall be deposited, and may provide that no contract for construction shall be made without the approval of the consulting engineers. The bridge constructed under the authority of this act shall be deemed to be an instrumentality for international commerce authorized by the Government of the United States, and said bridge and ferry or ferries and the income derived therefrom shall be exempt from all Federal, State, municipal, and local taxation. Said bonds shall be sold in such manner and at such price as the commission may determine, such price to be not less than the price at which the interest yield basis will equal 6 per centum per annum as computed from standard tables of bond values, and the face amount thereof shall be so calculated as to produce, at the price of their sale, the estimated cost of the bridge and its approaches, and the land, easements, and appurtenances used in connection therewith and, in the event the ferry or ferries are to be acquired, also the estimated cost of such ferry or ferries and the lands, easements, and appurtenances used in connection therewith. The cost of the bridge and ferry or ferries shall be deemed to include interest during construction of the bridge, and for twelve months thereafter, and all engineering, legal, architectural, traffic surveying, and other expenses incident to the construction of the bridge or the acquisition of the ferry or ferries, and the acquisition of the necessary property, and incident to the financing thereof, including the cost of acquiring existing franchises, rights, plans, and works of and relating to the bridge, now owned by any person, firm, or corporation, and the cost of purchasing all or any part of the shares of stock of any such corporate owner if in the judgment of the commission such purchases should be found expedient. If the proceeds of the bonds issued shall exceed the cost as finally determined, the excess shall be placed in the sinking fund hereinafter provided. Prior to the preparation of definitive bonds the commission may under like restrictions issue temporary bonds with or without coupons, exchangeable for definitive bonds upon the issuance of the latter. SEC. 5. In fixing the rates of toll to be charged for the use of such bridge the same shall be so adjusted as to provide a fund sufficient to pay for the reasonable cost of maintaining, repairing, and operating the bridge and its approaches under economical management, and to provide a sinking fund sufficient to pay the principal and interest of such bonds as the same shall fall due and the redemption or repurchase price of all or any thereof redeemed or repurchased before maturity as herein provided. All tolls and other revenues from said bridge are hereby pledged to such uses and to the application thereof hereinafter in this section required. After payment or provision for payment therefrom of all such cost of maintaining, repairing, and operating and the reservation of an amount of money estimated to be sufficient for the same purpose during an ensuing period of not more than six months, the remainder of tolls collected shall be placed in the sinking fund, at intervals to be determined by the commission prior to issuance of the bonds. An accurate record of the cost of the bridge and its approaches, the expenditures for maintaining, repairing, and operating the same, and of the daily tolls collected, shall be kept and shall be available for the information of all persons interested. The commission shall classify in a reasonable way all traffic over the bridge, so that the tolls shall be so fixed and adjusted by it as to be uniform in the application thereof to all traffic falling within any such reasonable class, regard |