Message to Congress on the Interstate Compact to Conserve Oil and Gas.

To the Congress:

I transmit herewith a report of the Secretary of State enclosing a certified copy of An Agreement to Extend the Interstate Compact to Conserve Oil and Gas, executed as of April 5, 1939, by the Governors of the States of Oklahoma, New Mexico, Kansas, Colorado, Texas, and Michigan, which has been deposited in the archives of the Department of State in accordance with the provision contained therein.

The agreement refers to the interstate compact to conserve oil and gas executed at Dallas, Texas, on February 16, 1935, which received the consent of the Congress in Public Resolution No. 64, Seventy-fourth Congress, approved August 27, 1935 (49 Stat. 939). As that compact would have expired on September 1,1937, an agreement extending its provisions for two years was executed as of May 10, 1937, by the Governors of the States of Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, and Colorado, and received the consent of Congress in Public Resolution No. 57, Seventy-fifth Congress, approved August 10, 1937 (50 Stat. 617).

As the above-mentioned compact, in accordance with the extension agreement of May 10, 1937, will expire on September 1,1939, the present agreement provides that the original compact shall continue in force for two years from that date. In a letter from the Acting Secretary of the Interior dated June 8, 1939, enclosed with the report of the Secretary of State, the opinion is expressed that suitable legislation should be enacted by the Congress giving its consent to the extension to September 1,1941, of the Interstate Compact to Conserve Oil and Gas.

Accordingly, I hope that Congress will enact legislation giving its consent to the agreement executed as of April 5, 1939, as required by Article I, section 10, of the Constitution of the United States.