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7346389
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Signing of H.R. 9460 and S. 507 [Bill]
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document
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1
Source metadata
id
7346389
sourceUrl
contentType
document
title
Signing of H.R. 9460 and S. 507 [Bill]
citationUrl
collections
White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
Press Releases
subjects
U.S. House of Representatives. (03/04/1789 - )
U.S. Senate. (03/04/1789 - )
Legislation
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7346389
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22
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1976-10-22
month
10
year
1976
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nara-archive
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1
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8ab0ab5c745b875d
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Digitized from Box 33 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
[22]
OCTOBER 2 1976
Office of the White House Press Secretary
NOTICE TO THE PRESS
The President has signed H.R. 9460 - Virgin Islands and Guam
Constitutions. This bill provides for the establishment of a
constitution for the Virgin Islands and for Guam. Both the Virgin
Islands and Guam are organized under law as unincorporated territories
of the United States. They are administered by the Department of the
Interior under separate Organic Acts adopted by the Congress in 1931
(Virgin Islands) and 1950 (Guam).
H.R. 9460 will authorize the citizens of the Virgin Islands and Guam
to organize territorial governments under constitutions drafted by
their own elected representatives. The bill requires that such con-
stitutions: (1) recognize, aand be consistent with, the sovereignty of
the United States over the Virgin Islands and Guam, as well as all
other provisions of the U.S. Constitution, treaties, and laws of the
United States applicable to them; (2) provide for a republican form of
government, consisting of executive, legislative, and judicial branches;
(3) contain a bill of rights; and, (4) provide for the establishment
of a system of local courts.
The President has signed S. 507 - National Land Policy and Management
Act of 1976. This bill provides for the management, protection, and
development of the national resource lands.
S. 507 will provide for inventorying public lands, land use planning,
management under principles of multiple use and sustained yield,
retention of public lands in Federal ownership unless the public interest
would be served by disposal, land acquisition and disposal under certain
guidelines consistent with land use plans, payment of fair market value
for any lands sold, public involvement in various BLM decisions, coor-
dination with State and local planning, law enforcement, wilderness area
identification and review, recordation of mining claims, granting of
rights-of-way under a comprehensive environmentally sound system,
establishing a working capital fund for the management of the public
lands, and repeal of a number of outmoded disposal and right-of-way
statues.
The bill will authorize appropriations of (1) $20 million for withdrawal
reviews, (2) $3 million for the working capital fund, and (3) $40 million
for the development and management of the California Desert Conservation
Area. The bill will also authorize such sums as may be necessary for
carrying out the Act, and in this regard, the Secretary will be required
every four years to seek an appropriation reauthorization for all BLM
programs effective for fiscal year 1979.
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