interesting to note that the Board, in reporting on the 1951 amendments, concluded that a deficit of 1.645 percent of an assumed $5.2 billion level payroll was no reason for concern about the solvency of the fund and yet, with respect to the legislation proposed here, view with alarm an increase in the deficit from 0.91 to 1.06 percent.

In the report of the Joint Committee on Railroad Retirement Legis+ lation there is a projection indicating that the railroad retirement ac count will be exhausted in about 56 years-2010. There is testimony that enactment of S. 2178 would advance the date by perhaps 5 years→→ to 2005. This indicates the relative insignificance of the impact of S. 2178 on the solvency of the fund. What is more important, how ever, is that, with or without the dual-benefit provision, the retirement system is underfinanced and operating at a deficit. The dual benefit ban was designed to produce sufficient savings to help put the fund on a sound financial basis. In view of the evidence that it does not do so but plays only a relatively minor part in the whole structure of the fund, the factors of cost and savings lose significance.

Because of the present deficit and the increased demands on the fund which will be created by the enactment of this legislation, consideration may have to be given at some future date to ways and means of increasing receipts into the fund. In this respect, time is not of the e sence and the question of finding proper sources of revenue can be considered some time hence.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

The House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce conducted lengthy hearings and gave this matter very careful attention, This committee has had the benefit of that action and has itself taken considerable testimony. In addition, the matter has been given long and serious study by individual members of the committee, by the committee staff, by a specially appointed subcommittee, and by the committee as a whole. In the light of this background, the committee has concluded that the so-called dual benefits ban has produced hardships which were not intended and which could not reasonably have been anticipated at the time the provision was proposed and adopted. It is the feeling of the committee therefore that the dualbenefits ban provision should be repealed. The committee recommends prompt enactment of the bill here being reported.

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In accordance with subsection (4) of rule XXIX of the Standing Rules of the Senate, the changes made in existing law by the bill are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets, existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman):

SECTION 3 (b) OF THE RAILROAD RETIREMENT ACT OF 1937, AS AMENDED

SEC. 3. (a)

COMPUTATION OF ANNUITIES

(b) The "years of service" of an individual shall be determined as follows: (1) In the case of an individual who was an employee on the enactment date, the years of service shall include all his service subsequent to December 31, 1936, and if the total number of such years is less than thirty, then the years of service shall also include his service prior to January 1, 1937, but not so as to make his total years of service exceed thirty: Provided, however, That with respect to any such individual who rendered service to any employer after January 1, 1937, and who on the enactment date was not an employee of an employer conducting the principal part of its business in the United States no greater proportion of his service rendered prior to January 1, 1937, shall be included in his "years of service" than the proportion which his total compensation (including compensation in any month in excess of $300) for service after January 1, 1937, rendered anywhere to an employer conducting the principal part of its business in the United States or rendered in the United States to any other employer bears to his total compensation (including compensation in any month in excess of $300) for service rendered anywhere to an employer after January 1, 1937.

(2) In all other cases, the years of service shall include only the service subsequent to December 31, 1936.

(3) Where the years of service include only part of the service prior to January 1, 1937, the part included shall be taken in reverse order beginning with the last calendar month of such service.

[The retirement annuity or pension of an individual, and the annuity of his spouse, if any, shall be reduced, beginning with the month in which such individual is, or on proper application would be, entitled to an old age insurance benefit under the Social Security Act, as follows: (i) in the case of the individual's retirement annuity, by that portion of such annuity which is based on his years of service and compensation before 1937, or by the amount of such old age insurance benefit, whichever is less, (ii) in the case of the individual's pension, by the amount of such old age insurance benefit, and (iii) in the case of the spouse's annuity, to one-half the individual's retirement annuity or pension as reduced pursuant to clause (i) or clause (ii) of this paragraph: Provided, however, That, in the case of any individual receiving or entitled to receive an annuity or pension on the day prior to the date of enactment of this paragraph, the reductions required by this paragraph shall not operate to reduce the sum of (A) the retirement annuity or pension of the individual, (B) the spouse's annuity, if any, and (C) the benefits under the Social Security Act which the individual and his family receive or are entitled to receive on the basis of his wages, to an amount less than such sum was before the enactment of this paragraph.]

83D CONGRESS 2d Session

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SENATE

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REPORT No. 1477

AUTHORIZING THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR TO ISSUE QUITCLAIM DEEDS TO THE STATES FOR CERTAIN LANDS

JUNE 1 (legislative day, MAY 13), 1954.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. BARRETT, from the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 2027]

The Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 2027) authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to issue quitclaim deeds to the States for certain lands, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with an amendment in the nature of a substitute, and with the recommendation that the bill, as amended, do pass.

Strike all after the enacting clause and insert in lieu thereof the following:

That the Secretary of the Interior shall issue quitclaim deeds to the public-land States for all lands patented to such States under section 4 of the Carey Act of August 18, 1894 (43 U. S. C., sec. 641). He shall also issue a patent for all unpatented public lands within each State now segregated under that Act for which the State issued final certificates or other evidence of right prior to June 1, 1953, or as to which equitable claims to the lands accrued prior to that date (by reason of cultivation or improvement of the lands for agricultural development purposes) for conveyance to the holders of such rights or claims, or to their heirs, successors, or assigns.

SEC. 2. The Secretary shall not issue such quitclaim deeds or patents to any State, however, unless that State files a proper application for the transfer of these lands within three years after the date of the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 3. The application must include a list of all the lands which the State certifies should be transferred under the terms of section 1 of this Act, this basis for the certification of each tract included, and a quitclaim or relinquishment of all right, title, and interest in the State to any and all other lands under the Carey Act. Such quitclaim or relinquishment by the State shall not affect any private rights obtained from the State prior to the enactment of this Act.

SEC. 4. The quitclaim or relinquishment of all right, title, and interest by the State to any lands under this Act shall not be effective until the Secretary has transferred the lands applied for under section 1 of this Act. The Secretary shall provide for the administration and disposition under the public-land laws of the lands quitclaimed or relinquished by the States pursuant to this Act.

58003-55 S. Repts., 83-2. vol. 3- 61

PURPOSE OF THE BILL

The bill, as amended, would enable the Federal Government and the arid land States affected by the Carey Act (43 U. S. C. 641) to clear titles to and dispose of public lands which have been patented to or segregated for these States. At the outset, the Carey Act enabled the Western States in which relatively large areas of public lands remained unentered to cooperate in reclaiming some of these lands where water supplies were available for permitting reclamation, habitation, and use for agricultural purposes. Furthermore, the act limited disposals by the States to 160 acres to 1 person. These requirements are not altered.

It now appears that a small part of the lands involved is patented to the States but cannot be reclaimed by irrigation. Consequently, the States cannot dispose of these areas under existing law, nor can the Government, since it has already patented them to the States. Also involved are 35,000 acres in outstanding segregation lists on which no final action has been taken.

S. 2027 would break the impasse which exists on the patented lands by releasing the restrictions on their disposal provided that, in States where there are outstanding segregations, the States relinquish to the Federal Government those unpatented lands on which no State final certificates have been issued or on which no persons have established equitable claims by reason of agricultural development or improvement. As to these categories, patents would be issued to the States solely for the purpose of reconveyance to the certificate or claim holders or their successors.

The outstanding merit of the bill is that it would make it possible to clear up the few remaining odds and ends existing under the Carey Act without costly procedures and without undue delays.

The following reports are made a part hereof, and are favorable to enactment of the bill as amended.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE President,

BUREAU OF THE BUDGET, Washington 25, D. C., May 13, 1954:

Hon. HUGH BUTLER,

Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs,
United States Senate, Washington 25, D. C.

MY DEAR Mr. CHAIRMAN: This will refer to the request of your committee for the views of this Bureau concerning a committee print of S. 2027, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to issue quit claim deeds to the States for certain lands. This print of the bill is a substitute for the original of S. 2027, which was the subject of our letter to your committee on April 7, 1954.

The proposed substitute bill is a substantial improvement over the original: It identifies more clearly the objectives to be attained. The States are given a time limit to comply with the bill's provisions. In consideration of the issuance of deeds and patents for lands the States are required to relinquish to the United States all of their right, title, and interest to any and all other Carey Act lands not embraced in section 1 of the substitute. Under the Carey Act something over 1 million acres were patented to 8 States. These grants ranged from 1,500 acres to 600,000 acres. It is understood that some 35,000 acres of the segregated lands, principally in Idaho and Wyoming, would revert to the United States under section 3 of the substitute bill.