DISPOSITIONS OUTSIDE UNITED STATES

SEC. 32. (a) Nothing in this Act shall limit or affect the authority of commanders in active theaters of military operations with respect to property in their control.

(b) The provisions of this Act shall be applicable to dispositions of property within the United States and elsewhere, but the Board may exempt from some or all of the provisions hereof dispositions of property located outside of the continental United States, its Territories and possessions, whenever it deems that such provisions would obstruct the efficient and economic disposition of such property in accordance with the objectives of this Act.

RESTRICTIONS ON IMPORTATION OF SURPLUS PROPERTY INTO UNITED STATES

SEC. 33. (a) It is the policy of this Act to prohibit, so far as feasible and necessary to carry out the objectives of this Act, the importation into the United States of surplus property sold abroad or for export. The Board shall prescribe regulations to carry out such policy, and the importation of surplus property into the United States is hereby prohibited to the extent specified in such regulations. The Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to provide for the enforcement of such regulations.

(b) Surplus property sold to members of the armed forces abroad may be brought into the United States without regard to the provisions of subsection (a) if brought in by the original purchaser and upon certificate by him that he is bringing the property into the United States for his personal use.

SAVING PROVISIONS

SEC. 34. (a) The authority conferred by this Act is in addition to any authority conferred by any other law and shall not be subject to the provisions of any law inconsistent herewith. This Act shall not impair or affect any authority for the disposition of property under any other law, except that the Board may prescribe regulations to govern any disposition of surplus property under any such authority to the same extent as if the disposition were made under this Act, whenever it deems such action necessary to effectuate the objectives and policies of this Act.

(b) Nothing in this Act shall impair or affect the provisions of the Contract Settlement Act of 1944; the Emergency Price Control Act of 1942, as amended; the Act of October 2, 1942 (ch. 578, 56 Stat. 765), as amended; section 301 of the Second War Powers Act, 1942; the Act of March 11, 1941 (55 Stat. 31), as amended; the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933, as amended; Public Law 849, Seventysixth Congress, as amended, respecting war housing and facilities: the Act of June 7, 1939, relating to the acquisition of strategic and critical materials (53 Stat. 811); the Trading With the Enemy Act, as amended; section 43 of the Bankhead-Jones Farm Tenant Ac. as amended; Acts supplemental to any of the foregoing; any law regulating the exportation of property from the United States; the

internal-revenue laws; the statutes relating to the public lands; or any criminal law of the United States.

(c) Nothing in this Act shall be deemed to impair or modify any contract, or any term or provision of any contract, without the consent of the contractor, if the contract or the term or provision thereof is otherwise valid.

TEMPORARY APPLICABILITY OF EXISTING PROCEDURES

SEC. 35. All policies and procedures relating to surplus property prescribed by the Surplus War Property Administration, created by Executive Order Numbered 9425, dated February 19, 1944, or any other Government agency, in effect upon the effective date of this Act, and not inconsistent with this Act, shall remain in full force and effect unless and until superseded by regulations prescribed under this Act.

TERMINATION INVENTORIES

SEC. 36. (a) The Congress recognizes that upon termination of war contracts, the plants of war contractors will be filled with vast termination inventories which until removed or disposed of will prevent or interfere with the resumption of civilian production and reemployment, and that so far as possible decisions should be made in advance of termination for the disposition and removal of such termination inventories without delay when termination occurs. Measures should be taken to realize the greatest possible value from termination inventories.

(b) In advance of termination, to the maximum extent practicable

(1) each contracting agency shall advise its war contractors of the classes of termination inventory the contracting agency will wish to retain for military purposes; and

(2) the Board shall establish procedures for advising war contractors as to the care and handling and disposition of termination inventory not required for military purposes, in order to effectuate the policies stated in subsection (a) of this section and the policies of section 11 (a) (3) of the Contract Settlement Act of 1944.

(c) To the extent that it is impracticable so to advise war contractors in advance of termination, the contracting agencies and the Board shall be prepared to give such advice as soon as practicable after termination of the war contract.

(d) The Board and the Director of Contract Settlement shall cooperate in carrying out the provisions of this section.

(e) For the purposes of this section, the terms "contracting agency", "termination inventory", and "war contractor" shall have the meanings assigned to such terms by section 3 of the Contract Settlement Act of 1944.

INCREASE IN LOAN RATE ON COTTON

SEC. 37. (a) Section 8 (a) (1) of the Stabilization Act of 1942, as amended (relating to loans upon certain agricultural commodities),

is amended by striking out "at the rate in the case of cotton of 921⁄2 per centum" and inserting in lieu thereof “at the rate in the case of cotton of 95 per centum".

(b) The amendment made by this section shall be applicable only with respect to crops harvested after December 31, 1943, but shall not apply to crops planted after 1944. In the case of loans made under such section 8 upon any of the 1944 crop of cotton before the amendment made by this section takes effect, the Commodity Credit Corporation is authorized and directed to increase or provide for increasing the amount of such loans to the amount of the loans which would have been made if the loan rate specified in the amendment made by this section had been in effect at the time the loans were made.

EXPIRATION DATE

SEC. 38. Unless extended by law, this Act shall expire at the end of three years following the date of the cessation of hostilities in the present war. For the purposes of this section the term "date of the cessation of hostilities in the present war" means the date proclaimed by the President as the date of such cessation, or the date specified in a concurrent resolution of the two Houses of Congress as the date of such cessation, whichever is the earlier.

SEPARABILITY OF PROVISIONS

SEC. 39. If any provision of this Act, or the application of such provision to any person or circumstance, is held invalid, the remainder of this Act or the application of such provision to persons or circumstances other than those as to which it is held invalid, shall not be affected thereby.

Approved October 3, 1944.

[PUBLIC LAW 458-78TH CONGRESS]

[CHAPTER 480-2D SESSION]

[S. 2051]

AN ACT

To amend the Social Security Act, as amended, to provide a national program for war mobilization and reconversion, and for other purposes.

(2) Surplus War Property Administration, created by Executive Order Numbered 9425 (if such Administration is in existence after the Office of War Mobilization ceases to exist), and the Surplus Property Board created by the Surplus Property Act of 1944.

(b) When a majority of the members of the Surplus Property Board first appointed under the Surplus Property Act of 1944 have taken office, the Surplus War Property Administration created by Executive Order Numbered 9425 shall cease to exist; and such records and office equipment of the Surplus War Property Administration, and such unexpended balances of appropriations or other funds available for its use, as the President shall determine, shall be transferred to the Surplus Property Board.

Approved October 3, 1944.

(570)

[CHAPTER 368-1ST SESSION]

[H. R. 3907]

AN ACT

To provide for administration of the Surplus Property Act of 1944 by a Surplus Property Administrator.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That there is hereby established in the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion a Surplus Property Administration which shall be headed by a Surplus Property Administrator. The Administrator shall be appointed by the President by and with the advice and consent of the Senate and shall receive compensation at the rate of $12,000 per year. The term of office of the Administrator shall be two years.

SEC. 2. (a) Effective at the time the Surplus Property Administrator first appointed under this Act qualifies and takes office, the Surplus Property Board created by section 5 of the Surplus Property Act of 1944 is abolished, all of its functions are transferred to, and shall be exercised by, the Surplus Property Administrator, and all of its personnel (except the members thereof), records, and property (including office equipment) are transferred to, and shall become, respectively, the personnel, records, and property of the Surplus Property Administration.

(b) So much of the unexpended balances of appropriations, allocations, or other funds available for the use of the Surplus Property Board in the exercise of any function transferred by this Act shall be transferred to the Surplus Property Administration for use in connection with the exercise of the functions so transferred.

(c) All regulations, policies, determinations, authorizations, requirements, designations, and other actions of the Surplus Property Board, made, prescribed, or performed before the transfer of functions provided by subsection (a) of this section shall, except to the extent rescinded, modified, superseded, or made inapplicable by the Surplus Property Administrator, have the same effect as if such transfer had not been made; but functions vested in the Surplus Property Board by any such regulation, policy, determination, authorization, requirement, designation, or other action shall, insofar as they are to be exercised after the transfer, be considered as vested in the Surplus Property Administrator.

Approved September 18, 1945.

(571)

81504-51-37