TO AMEND TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY ACT MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1942 UNITED STATES SENATE SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10:30 a. m., in the committee room, 324 Senate Office Building, Senator John H. Bankhead presiding. Senator BANKHEAD. Gentlemen, the subcommittee will come to order. This is a hearing on S. 2361, introduced by Senator McKellar. For the purpose of the record I will instruct the reporter to put the bill in at this point. (The bill is as follows:) [S. 2361, 77th Cong., 2d Sess.] A BILL To amend the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933, as amended, with respect to the manner of the exercise of the power of condemnation by the Tennessee Valley Authority and to require the receipts of the Authority to be covered into the Treasury Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That sections 25, 26, and 27 of the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933, as amended, are amended to read as follows: "SEC. 25. The Corporation may acquire by condemnation any lands, easements, or rights-of-way which, in the opinion of the Corporation, are necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act. The authority conferred by this section shall be exercised in accordance with the laws of the United States (including the Act of February 26, 1931 (46 Stat. 1421)) applicable with respect to the condemnation of lands and interests therein by other departments and agencies of the Government. "SEC. 26. Commencing July 1, 1942, all proceeds derived by the Board from the sale of power or any other products manufactured by the Corporation, and from any other activities of the Corporation, including the disposition of any real or personal property, shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States monthly, and shall not be expended until subsequently appropriated by the Congress. "SEC. 27. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of the Treasury of the United States, such sums as may be necessary (1) to pay the expenses of the Corporation in its operations and the conduct of its business, (2) to provide an emergency fund not in excess of $1,000,000 at any one time which shall be available to the Board to defray emergency expenses and insure continuous operation, and (3) to otherwise carry out the provisions of this Act, but the Authority shall report any uses of said emergency fund on the first of January and first of July each year. SEC. 2. Notwithstanding the amendment made by this Act to section 25 of the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933, as amended, any proceeding instituted under such section prior to the date of enactment of this Act may, in the discretion of the court in which such proceeding is pending and with the consent of all known parties in interest, be allowed to continue and be prosecuted to a final determination in the same manner and with like effect as if such section 25 had not been amended by this Act. SEC. 3. Notwithstanding the amendment made by this Act to section 26 of the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933, as amended, the provisions of such section 26 as they read immediately prior to the date of enactment of this Act shall continue to be in effect until July 1, 1942. 1 Senator BANKHEAD. You may go ahead, now, Senator McKellar, with your testimony before the subcommittee in your own way. STATEMENT OF HON. KENNETH MCKELLAR, A UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE Senator MCKELLAR. Mr. Chairman, the first section of this bill provides that hereafter, or rather after the 1st of July, the first and second section provides that after the 1st of July the right of eminent domain shall be exercised by the T. V. A. exactly as all other Government takings of land are exercised. At the present, under the provision in the original act, the commission shall be established providing for the taking of land before a committee or commission selected by the parties under certain circumstances, and in my judgment that is not fair to the landowners, to the taxpayers, and is not fair to the other organizations of the Federal Government having the right of domain. The others have to go before the courts and the juries of the land in the regular way. This is an exception that was put in the original act, as I recall and I will have to get that particular provision of the act and put it in the record--this is merely to restore the method of condemnation in the T. V. A. that now exists in all other departments of the Government. So much for that. Senator AIKEN. Is there dominion set up by the State public service commission, which gives them the right of eminent domain, and these other rights to which you have referred? Senator MCKELLAR. No. It is set up in the T. V. A. itself. Senator BANKHEAD. The act creating the T. V. A. set it up. Senator AIKEN. Who would it go before under this amendment if it would not go before the State public service commission which I take, from your statement, it would not. What court, or what agency, or what body would operate for that purpose? Senator MCKELLAR. Any Federal court or State court, either. I will have to find that paragraph. Senator AIKEN. That is not necessary, Senator. I just wanted to get that information. Senator BULOW. Does the Commission now hear these condemnation proceedings, or does it appoint a subcommission for that purpose? Senator MCKELLAR. They have their own. They really hear it before themselves. Senator BULow. I see what you mean there. Senator MCKELLAR. It appoints a subcommission for that purpose and the purpose of this act is to put it on an equality with the others. Senator A'KEN. That is, it hears itself in arguments with regard to these matters, in effect? Senator MCKELLAR. That is true, Senator. Gentlemen, the next section is the more important one. SEC. 26. Commencing July 1, 1942, all proceeds derived by the Board from the sale of power or any other products manufactured by the Corporation, and from any other activities of the Corporation, including the disposition of any real or personal property, shall be paid into the Treasury of the United States monthly, and shall not be expended until subsequently appropriated by the Congress. And, another section, which is section No. 27: SEC. 27. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated, out of the Treasury of the United States, such sums as may be necessary (1) to pay tht expenses of the Corporation in its operations and the conduct of its business, (2) to provide an emergency fund not in excess of $1,000,000 at any one time which shall be available to the Board to defray emergency expenses and insure continuous operation, and (3) to otherwise carry out the provisions of this Act, but the Authority shall report any uses of said emergency fund on the first of January and first of July each year. Mr. Chairman, the T. V. A. was started in 1933, as I am sure you will all recall. They first built the Norris Dam, and then we built the Wheeler Dam, as I recall it. Work on the completion of the Wilson Dam had been begun and the Wilson Dam had been, incidentally, completed before and turned over to the power company under lease, or some other contract. When the T. V. A. Authority took charge, when they first built the Norris Dam, then the Wheeler Dam, and then Mr. A. E. Morgan, of that company, announced to me that they would build no more dams, that the purpose of the T. V. A. was not to build dams in opposition or in competition with the private power companies but to furnish a yardstick with which to measure the rates for power. I told him very frankly in my office that he did not know the purposes of the T. V. A., that I knew something about it, and that was not its purpose. He said that the underlying purposes of the T. V. A. was to bring up the poor, benighted, and ignorant people of east Tennessee to some sort of cultural plane at least partially equal to that of the people of the rest of the country and that in no sense was it expected to come in competition with private power companies. It was upon that statement that, as you-well, I believe Senator Bankhead was the only member present that was on the Appropriations Committee at the time it was that statement of Dr. Morgan, a statement which was concurred in by Mr. Lilienthal and Dr. Morgan, and it was no secret, it was well understood and published at the time; it was upon that statement that I undertook to build the dam at Pickwick and later on at Guntersville, Ala., Chickamauga, and Gilbertsville, Ky., Watts Bar, and Fort Loudoun. All of those dams were built not only over the opposition of the T. V. A., and members of the T. V. A., but against the lobbying of Dr. A. E. Morgan. I had to send for him and tell him that if he didn't get out of town along when the Gilbertsville and Pickwick Dam was coming up that I would certainly have something to say about it on the floor of the Senate. And so, these other dams were built not by direction of the T. V. A., but in spite of the T. V. A. members, and over their intense opposition. Senator AIKEN. Do you mean Dr. Morgan did not favor the building of these additional dams? Senator MCKELLAR. No one of them favored it. We got no recommendation of the T. V. A. to build any of these other dams except the Norris and Wheeler Dams. Senator AIKEN. What years were those? Senator MCKELLAR. 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, and 1940. Senator AIKEN. Who were the members of the Commission? Senator McKELLAR. David E. Lilienthal or Arthur Lilienthal-I . have forgotten which-and Dr. H. A. Morgan. |