PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

The Secretary of State, using the American Commissioner of the U.S.–Mexico International Boundary Commission, can study and investigate technical matters about the land and water border between the United States and Mexico. That includes marking the line, flood control, water use and pollution, drainage, and similar issues. The Secretary can also build and keep up fences, boundary markers, and cross‑border sewer, water, electric, and gas systems, and continue work already authorized. The President can build, run, and maintain on the Rio Grande below Fort Quitman, Texas any projects recommended by those studies that the President finds necessary.

Title 22, §277a

Foreign Relations and Intercourse, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The Secretary of State, acting through the American Commissioner, International Boundary Commission, United States and Mexico, is further authorized to conduct technical and other investigations relating to the defining, demarcation, fencing, or monumentation of the land and water boundary between the United States and Mexico, to flood control, water resources, conservation, and utilization of water, sanitation and prevention of pollution, channel rectification, stabilization, drainage of transboundary storm waters, and other related matters upon the international boundary between the United States and Mexico; and to construct and maintain fences, monuments and other demarcations of the boundary line between the United States and Mexico, and sewer systems, water systems, and electric light, power and gas systems crossing the international border, and to continue such work and operations through the American Commissioner as are now in progress and are authorized by law. The President is authorized and empowered to construct, operate, and maintain on the Rio Grande River below Fort Quitman, Texas, any and all works or projects which are recommended to the President as the result of such investigations and by the President are deemed necessary and proper.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1990—Pub. L. 101–246 inserted reference to drainage of transboundary storm waters. 1935—Act Aug. 19, 1935, amended section generally. 1927—Act Mar. 3, 1927, increased appropriation from $20,000 to $50,000.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Change of Name

International Boundary Commission, United States and Mexico, American section, to which powers, duties, and functions of International Water Commission, United States and Mexico, American section, were transferred by act June 30, 1932, ch. 314, pt. II, title V, § 510, 47 Stat. 417, reconstituted as International Boundary and Water Commission by Water Treaty of 1944.

Repeals

Act Mar. 3, 1927, cited as a credit to this section, was repealed by Pub. L. 89–554, § 8(a), Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 647. Water Resources PlanningJurisdiction, powers, or prerogatives of the International Boundary and Water Commission, United States and Mexico, unaffected by Water Resources Planning Act, see section 1962–1 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare.

§277a Investigations of Commission; Construction of Works or Projects