Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 67.djvu/621

 67 S T A T. ]

PUBLIC LAW 276-AUG. 15, 1953

including the collection of rents, mortgage installments and notes, and maintenance and repairs to buildings, collection and servicing of loans to cooperatives, and operation of a coffee plantation and coffee processing plants; and Whereas the Act of February 11, 1936 (49 Stat. 1135), established a revolving fund out of which the activities of the Puerto Kico Reconstruction Administration have been financed, directed that said fund remain available until the Congress should otherwise provide, and authorize the continuation of any agency established to administer that fund as long as the fund remained available for expenditures; and Whereas the purposes for which the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration was created have long since been accomplished and the activities in which it is now engaged are costly to the United States, are to some extent in competition with private enterprise, and are of such a nature that they could and should be taken over by private capital or by agencies of the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico; and Whereas the Secretary of the Interior and the Comptroller General of the United States have recommended that the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration be liquidated forthwith: Therefore, be it Resolved by the SenMe and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of the Interior, through such officers, agents, or employees as he may designate, is hereby authorized and directed td liquidate the agency known as the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration established by Executive Order Numbered 7057 of May 28, 1935, in accordance with the terms of this joint resolution. SEC. 2. Disposition of all property of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, pursuant to the terms of this joint resolution, shall be completed within eighteen months from the date of enactment of this joint resolution, and all functions and activities of the Administration shall cease by that date. SEC. 3. The authority contained herein to liquidate the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration shall include authority to sell, transfer, or otherwise dispose of, upon such terms and at such discounts as the Secretary of the Interior may deem advantageous to the United States, all property, real, personal, or mixed, and any interest in or control over such property, owned by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration, or owned by the United States and under the administrative jurisdiction of the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration. Such sale, transfer, or other disposition may be made without regard to the provisions of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended. Disposition of the properties may be made to private individuals, or associations of individuals: Provided, That the Secretary of the Interior shall in all instances offer first opportunity to persons living in, on, or in the vicinity of the said properties, and the next opportunity to veterans, to acquire them on terms not incompatible with the interests of the United States: And provided further, That loans to cooperatives may be transferred for collection to any agency of the United States. SEC. 4. (a) Effective upon the date of enactment of this joint resolution, all restrictions, not otherwise required by any law of the United States or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, imposed by and contained in any deed of conveyance executed prior to that date by the Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration and as to which all liens enumerated therein have been satisfied or may be satisfied during the period of liquidation prescribed by this joint resolution, shall be null

585

IS u s e 721-728.

Puerto Rico Reconstruction Administration. Liquidation.

Termination.

D i s p o s ition of property.

63 Stat. 377. 40 USC 471 note.

D e e d s of conveyance. Restrictions.

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