Talk:Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936

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I've been looking into this Act online, and the date for it is accurate I believe. Yet some pages tell me it is the act of 1936. If any of you guys can figure this out, I'd greatly appreciate it. I believe the date I put is right, but it never hurts to have someone double check. You may have resources I do not have access to.

--Sephiriz 03:12, Mar 21, 2005 (UTC)

I'm sure its 1936. The AAA was deemed unconstitutional in 1936, and the SCDAA was a reaction to it.

Agree. Butler (the case on AAA of 33) was in Jan. 36. This needs to be amped up--I believe it created the Soil Conservation Service (now NRCS) in a response to the Dust Bowl as well as trying to save the production adjustment aspects of AAA. As a newbie I'm trying to get up the nerve to edit.Bharshaw 19:51, 30 June 2006 (UTC)

See the next entries below for answers. Moreau1 (talk) 02:55, 2 March 2011 (UTC)

Are there two laws both called the "Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act"?

It appears that there are at least two separate Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Acts: one enacted in 1935 and another in 1936. The latter may have amended the former. And perhaps the 1935 law also had another name, the "Soil Conservation Act." (Congress does sometimes establish multiple names for a single law.) Or maybe some people have just confused things by sometimes referring to the 1936 law, when they really meant the 1935 law? (Those making this mistake would include some NRCS websites.) Here are some sources:

The 1935 act (P.L. 74-46)

1. Various NRCS publications refer to the "Soil Conservation Act," signed by FDR on April 27, 1935. e.g.,

• USDA/SCS, "Readings in the History of the Soil Conservation Service." (Part 1.) p.24
  

2. Another NRCS publication refers to P.L. 74-46 as the "Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1935."

• "2000 Annual Program Performance Report: Natural Resources Conservation Service." (2001)
  

3. A news/historical article describes FDR signing the "Soil Conservation Act" on 4/27/1935.

• "FDR signs Soil Conservation Act, April 27, 1935"
  

4. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a long list of federal laws with citations:

• "Digest of Federal Resource Laws of Interest to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act" cites the following:
  • Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1935 [16 U.S.C. 590(e); 590(e)(1); 590(g); 590(h); 590(p)(1); and 590(q)(3); 49 Stat. 163] as amended by:
    • Chapter 104; February 29, 1936; 49 Stat. 1148; Chapter 395; (... and a list of subsequent amendments through 1993)

The 1936 act (P.L. 74-461)

FDR signed an act on February 29, 1936. P.L. 74-461. This law appears to have only one name, "Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act."
1. "Statement on Signing the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act. March 1, 1936"
2. Excerpt from NRCS, "Conserving the Plains: The Soil Conservation Service in the Great Plains. (1990):

"USDA began paying part of the cost of soil conservation practices under the Agricultural Conservation Program which was provided for in the Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936. USDA seized on the soil conservation rationale to reenact production controls after the Supreme Court invalidated portions of the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933."

If all of the above is correct, either a new page should be created for the 1935 law, with appropriate cross links to/from the current article; or the title of the curent article should be changed by deleting "of 1936", i.e. maintain one page with separate sections describing each law. I think I prefer the latter. Moreau1 (talk) 03:00, 24 February 2011 (UTC)

Follow-up

I went to the primary source documents--the United States Code and the United States Statutes at Large--and figured out the answers to the above question.

1. In the first session of the 74th Congress, they passed the first law, P.L. 74-46, and FDR signed it on 4/27/35. 49 Stat. 163. This law created the Soil Conservation Service, gave the new agency various duties and powers, and that's about all. Congress gave it only a long title, "An Act to provide for the protection of land resources against soil erosion, and for other purposes." In newspaper articles at the time, it was referred to as the "Soil Conservation Act," but that title does not appear in the statute. (That name might appear somewhere in the legislative history, but I haven't looked into that.)
2. In the second session, Congress passed the second law, P.L. 74-461, and FDR signed it on 2/29/36. It added some sections to the 1935 law, and also amended some sections of the AAA in response to the Supreme Court decision. This law also had a long title, but more importantly, Congress gave it a short title as well, which is the one everyone uses: Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act. (This Wikipedia article notwithstanding.) See 49 Stat. 1150.
3. In P.L. 74-461, Congress also retroactively gave the same name to the 1935 law. See 49 Stat. 1151.
4. The SCS-related provisions of both laws were codified together at that time in the U.S. Code at Title 16, Chapter 3B (Soil Conservation); 16 USC 590(a). (You won't find this citation in the current U.S.C., since the law was subsequently amended and some portions were repealed in 1966. I looked up the 1940 edition of the U.S.C.)

• Some government documents (e.g. USDA) and other organizations may refer to the "Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act of 1936," perhaps as a simple way to distinguish it from the 1935 law (and subsequent amendments), but the statute itself does not include the year in the title.
• Based on these findings, I will recommend that this article be moved to "Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act" without a year designation in the title. There should be a history section in the article that would start with the 1935 act, followed by the 1936 amendment, and then subsequent amendments. Moreau1 (talk) 02:55, 2 March 2011 (UTC)