§3714a Dissolution of Commission

Summary

The Commission must study how much it will cost to close down, including the makeup, place, and expenses of a small office to do the shutdown work, and any costs or debts that will still be unpaid when the Commission ends. The Commission must send Congress a report by September 30, 1996, saying what it found and estimating how long it may take to finish the Commission’s business after the termination of the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977. During fiscal year 1998 the Commission must create the office that will finish any remaining work after that treaty ends. A “Panama Canal Commission Dissolution Fund” is set up in the U.S. Treasury. The Commission manages the Fund until the termination of the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977, and the new office manages it after that. After September 30, 1998, the Fund may pay the office’s operating costs and other dissolution costs, including costs that appear after the treaty ends, but payments from October 1, 1998, until the treaty ends must be approved by the Board named in law. The Fund is made from toll deposits and earnings; the Treasury may invest extra money in U.S. public debt and add the interest back to the Fund. No money may be spent from the Fund unless a law allows it. The office may use the Fund for its purposes through October 1, 2004. The Fund ends on October 1, 2004, and any remaining money goes into the Treasury’s general fund.