RELINQUISHMENT BY UNITED STATES OF LANDS IN CITY OF RUPERT, IDAHO An act to provide for the relinquishment by the United States of certain lands to the city of Rupert in the county of Minidoka, in the State of Idaho. (Act February 14, 1931, ch. 163, 46 Stat. 1102) [Secretary authorized to quitclaim to city of Rupert all right, title, and interest of United States in certain tract of land in Government town site.]-That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized to quitclaim to the city of Rupert in the county of Minidoka, in the State of Idaho, all of the right, title, and interest of the United States in or to that certain tract of land in the Government town site of Rupert on the Minidoka reclamation project, more precisely bounded and described as follows: Beginning at the northeast corner section 29, township 9 south, range 24 east, Boise meridian; thence south six minutes west twenty-one and one-tenth feet along the section line; thence south forty-five degrees twenty-two minutes west along the Oregon Short Line Railroad right of way three thousand seven hundred and thirty and eight-tenths feet to a point on the east and west center line of said section 29; thence south eighty-nine degrees fifty-six minutes west along said center line one hundred and fourteen feet; thence north forty-five degrees twenty-two minutes east three thousand eight hundred and ninety-one and three-tenths feet to a point on the section line between sections 20 and 21; thence south six minutes west along said section line ninety-one and fivetenths feet to the point of beginning, as shown on the official plat of the town site of Rupert, Idaho, said tract of land containing seven acres more or less. 456 MOTOR-VEHICLE TRAVEL An act to permit payments for the operation of motor cycles and automobiles used for necessary travel on official business, on a mileage basis in lieu of actual operating expenses. (Act February 14, 1931, ch. 165, 46 Stat. 1103) [Payment to civilian officer or employee for use of own motor cycle or automobile in lieu of actual expenses of transportation.]—That a civilian officer or employee engaged in necessary travel on official business away from his designated post of duty may be paid, in lieu of actual expenses of transportation, under regulations to be prescribed by the President, not to exceed 3 cents per mile for the use of his own motor cycle or 7 cents per mile for the use of his own automobile for such transportation, whenever such mode of travel has been previously authorized and payment on such mileage basis is more economical and advantageous to the United States. This act shall take effect July 1, 1931, and all laws or parts of laws are hereby modified or repealed to the extent same may be in conflict herewith. Textual note.-The above act is codified as section 73a, title 5, U. S. C. NOTES Section 9, title II, of the act approved March 3, 1933 (Pub. No. 428) amends the above act by limiting the mileage allowance in case of travel by motorcycle to 2 cents per mile, and that by automobile to 5 cents per mile. Local transportation of employees to and from their homes (operators of dragline excavators, Ruth dredger ditching machines, etc.).—In decision A-41688 dated April 30, 1932, the Comptroller General sustained disallowances of payment for mileage traveled by employees in personally owned automobiles at their official station or headquarters engaged in work on dragline excavators and Ruth dredger ditching machines not stationary at a given distance from their official station, but moving daily along irrigation canals, drainage ditches, etc., which traverse the project lands. The work of these employees varies in distance at times from only a few miles to as high as 50 or 60 miles from their headquarters, at which point they must report in time to complete an 8-hour working shift. The Comptroller General cited previous decisions of October 5, 1931, and March 15, 1932, in which it was held that an employee must be traveling on official business away from his designated post of duty to entitle him to reimbursement for use of his personally owned automobile under the provisions of the act of February 14, 1931, 46 Stat. 1103. Statement was made that the general act was intended to repeal all special provisions appearing in the appropriation acts for the fiscal year 1932 regarding travel, even though enacted subsequent to the date of the general act; and that therefore compensation could not be made under the special provision in the Interior Department appropriation act of February 14, 1931 (46 Stat. 1146), providing for local transportation of employees to and from their homes (Rio Grande project). Travel in borrowed automobile.-By decision A-40181 dated January 11, 1932, the Comptroller General held that the authority for payment of mileage in the act of February 14, 1931 (46 Stat. 1103), is limited to payment for the use of an employee's own automobile; and that there is no authority for payment of 88508-37-30 an employee upon a mileage basis for the use of an automobile borrowed from a friend. 11 Comp. Gen. 118 was cited. In 11 Comp. Gen. 425 it was held that payment on a mileage basis may not be made to a civilian employee for the use of his wife's car. Advance authority must be secured. The act of February 14, 1931 (46 Stat. 1103), requires as a condition precedent to the payment of mileage for the use of an employee's personally owned automobile, that such mode of travel has been "previously authorized", and where travel is performed in a personally owned automobile without such previous authorization mileage is not payable. (11 Comp. Gen. 333.) Personnel traveling in own automobile may be allowed up to 5 cents per mile if one or more employees are also transported. (Decision A-50711, dated December 8, 1933.) UNPLATTED PORTIONS OF TOWN SITES ON IRRIGATION PROJECTS An act to amend the act approved March 2, 1929, entitled "An act to authorize the disposition of unplatted portions of Government town sites on irrigation projects under the reclamation act of June 17, 1902, and for other purposes." (Act February 14, 1931, ch. 176, 46 Stat. 1107) [Act of March 2, 1929, amended to permit sale of unplatted portions of Government town sites on terms required by bidder, but not to exceed five years.]-That section 1 of the act of March 2, 1929, entitled "An act to authorize the disposition of unplatted portions of Government town sites on irrigation projects under the reclamation act of June 17, 1902, and for other purposes" (45 Stat. L. 1522; U. S. C., Supp. III, title 43, sec. 571), be amended to read: "That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, in his discretion, to appraise and sell, at public auction, to the highest bidder, from time to time, under such terms as to time of payment as he may require, but in no event for any longer period than five years, any or all of the unplatted portions of Government town sites created under the act of April 16, 1906 (34 Stat. 116), on any irrigation project constructed under the act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), or acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto : Provided, That any land so offered for sale and not disposed of may afterwards be sold, at not less than the appraised value, at private sale, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe. Patents made in pursuance of such sale shall convey all the right, title, and interest of the United States in or to the land so sold." NOTE Textual note. The above act, amending section 1 of the act of March 2, 1929 (45 Stat. 1522), is codified as section 571, title 43, U. S. C. SPECIAL PROVISIONS OF THE INTERIOR DEPARTMENT [Extracts from] An act making appropriations for the Department of the Interior for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1932, and for other purposes. (Act February 14, 1931, ch. 187, 46 Stat. 1115) That the following sums are appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for the Department of the Interior for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1932, namely: CONTINGENT EXPENSES, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR For contingent expenses of the office of the Secretary and the bureaus and offices of the department; furniture, carpets, ice, lumber, hardware, dry goods, advertising, telegraphing, telephone service, including personal services of temporary or emergency telephone operators; street-car fares for use of messengers not exceeding $150; expressage, diagrams, awnings, filing devices, typewriters, adding and addressing machines and other labor-saving devices, including the repair, exchange, and maintenance thereof; constructing model and other cases and furniture; postage stamps to prepay postage on foreign mail and for special-delivery and air-mail stamps for use in the United States; traveling expenses, including necessary expenses of inspectors; fuel and light; examination of estimates for appropriations in the field for any bureau, office, or service of the department; not exceeding $500 shall be available for the payment of damages caused to private property by department motor vehicles; * * purchase and exchange of motor trucks, motor cycles, and bicycles, maintenance, repair, and operation of motor-propelled passenger-carrying vehicles and motor trucks, motor cycles, and bicycles to be used only for official purposes; rent of department garage; expense of taking testimony and preparing the same in connection with disbarment proceedings instituted against persons charged with improper practices before the department, its bureaus and offices; expense of translations, and not exceeding $1,000 for contract stenographic reporting services; not exceeding $700 for newspapers; stationery, including tags, labels, index cards, cloth-lined wrappers, and specimen bags, printed in the course of manufacture, and such printed envelopes as are not supplied under contracts made by the Postmaster General, for the department and its several bureaus and offices, and other absolutely necessary expenses not hereinbefore provided for. $100,000; and, in addition thereto, sums amounting to $83,000 for stationery supplies shall be deducted from other appropriations made for the fiscal year 1932, as follows: |