§3793 Interest on Investments

Summary

The Treasury Secretary must pick an interest rate and use it to figure interest on the U.S. money invested in the Panama Canal as shown in the Canal Company's books at the close of business the day before October 1, 1979. That investment does not include any interest that was paid while the canal was being built. The investment total is then changed: it goes up for certain expenditures from the Panama Canal Revolving Fund and for property the United States gives to the Commission, and it goes down for deposits into the Revolving Fund, for property given to the Republic of Panama on or after October 1, 1979, and for property the Commission gives to other U.S. agencies. The Director of the Office of Management and Budget must decide the value of property the United States transfers to the Commission. The Director must consider cost, likely earnings, usable value if that is lower, and account for depreciation, obsolescence, and similar losses. As far as possible, any value that belongs to national defense should be left out. The Panama Canal Commission must pay the calculated interest to the U.S. Treasury, and the money must go into the Treasury’s general fund.