Dwight D. Eisenhower photo

Statement by the President Upon Signing a Bill Amending the Tennessee Valley Authority Act.

August 06, 1959

I HAVE TODAY approved the bill, H.R. 3460, an act to amend the Tennessee Valley Authority Act of 1933, as amended, and for other purposes. This measure meets basic requirements of major importance to the future of the TVA--a program of self-financing; a program of repayments to the government of the major portion of its investment plus interest; and a limitation upon future geographical expansion of the TVA service area. While the provisions of the bill in respect to these matters vary in certain details from what I should have preferred, they broadly conform to the purposes I had in mind in originally proposing this legislation.

One part of this bill, however, is wholly unacceptable. It attempts to divorce TVA's construction program of new power-producing projects from effective Executive review and allows the Congress to modify the Authority's program without regard to the views of the President and without opportunity for the President to exercise his Constitutional role in the legislative process.

TVA is, however, part of the Executive Branch of the Government. Therefore, this particular provision would be a clear invasion of the prerogatives of the Chief Executive. Accordingly, I have conferred with Leaders of both parties in the Senate and House of Representatives; we are in full agreement that the independence of the Executive and Legislative Branches must be preserved. I have been informed by these Leaders that legislation will be passed swiftly by both Houses deleting this objectionable feature. In accordance with that understanding, I have approved H.R. 3460.

Note: As enacted, H.R. 3460 is Public Law 86-137 (73 Stat. 280).

Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President Upon Signing a Bill Amending the Tennessee Valley Authority Act. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/235191

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