1394                            JOINT RESOLUTIONS

Project requires financial participation in a portion of such costs
by the states and jurisdictions abutting the River, the State of Mary-
land will by appropriate legislation provide for this State's fair share
of such non-Federally financed portion; and be it further

Resolved, That the State of Maryland recommends and suggests
that the State of West Virginia, the Commonwealth of Virginia
and the District of Columbia similarly indicate their willingness to
pay their respective fair shares of the non-Federally financed portion
of the Bloomington Dam Project, if the Federal legislation does not
provide for the total construction cost; and be it further

Resolved, That copies of this joint resolution be sent to the Presi-
dent of the United States Senate, The Speaker of the House of
Representatives, each member of the Maryland Delegation to the
United States Congress, to the Chief of the Corps of Engineers, to
the Secretary of the Interior, and to the Potomac River Basin Ad-
visory Committee, all under the Great Seal of the State of Maryland.

Approved May 6, 1966.

No. 48
(House Joint Resolution 23)

House Joint Resolution providing for the compilation and mainte-
nance of a register of legally blind persons residing within the
State of Maryland.

Whereas, there is at present no state-wide register of legally
blinded persons in the State of Maryland; and

Whereas, such a register is necessary in compiling and maintain-
ing accurate statistics concerning the causes, incidence and preva-
lence of blindness in the State of Maryland; and

Whereas, such a register will serve as a means of informing blind
persons of needed and available services and will assist in the pro-
vision of such services to blind persons; and

Whereas, such a register would serve as a means of informing
parents of blind children of the agencies and organizations available
to aid in the special education of blind children; and

Whereas, The State Board of Education has authorized the State
Department of Education through its Division of Vocational Re-
habilitation to contract with the Biometrics Branch, National Insti-
tute for Neurological Diseases and Blindness, Bethesda, Maryland,
for financial and technical assistance in establishing a state-wide
register of all legally blind persons; (A blind person is defined as
one whose visual acuity in the better eye is no greater than 20/200
with correcting lens, or one whose field of vision is constricted to
such a degree that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends
an angle no greater then 20 degrees), now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the General Assembly of Maryland, That it endorses
the action of the State Board of Education in establishing a state-