Ch. 5

2003 LAWS OF MARYLAND

(10)   ARTICLE 10. AVAILABILITY OF COMPACT; "STATE" DEFINED.

This compact shall be available to any state, possession or territory of the
United States, and the District of Columbia. The term "state" may also include any
neighboring foreign country or province or state thereof.

(11)   ARTICLE 11. ROLE OF FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY.

The committee established pursuant to Article 1 of this compact may request the
Federal Emergency Management Agency of the United States government to act as
an informational and coordinating body under this compact, and representatives of
such agency of the United States government may attend meetings of such
committee.

(12)   ARTICLE 12. COMPACT OPERATIVE ON RATIFICATION.

This compact shall become operative immediately upon its ratification by any
state as between it and any other state or states so ratifying and shall be subject to
approval by Congress unless prior congressional approval has been given. Duly
authenticated copies of this compact and of such supplementary agreements as may
be entered into shall, at the time of their approval, be deposited with each of the party
states and with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other appropriate
agencies of the United States government.

(13) ARTICLE 13. WITHDRAWAL FROM COMPACT.

This compact shall continue in force and remain binding on each party state
until the legislature or the governor of such party state takes action to withdraw
therefrom. Such action shall not be effective until 30 days after notice thereof has
been sent by the governor of the party state desiring to withdraw to the governors of
all other party states.

(14)   ARTICLE 14. CONSTRUCTION OF COMPACT; SEVERABILITY.

This compact shall be construed to effectuate the purposes stated in Article 1
hereof. If any provision of this compact is declared unconstitutional, or the
applicability thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the
constitutionality of the remainder of this compact and the applicability thereof to
other persons and circumstances shall not be affected thereby.

(15)   ARTICLE 15. ADDITIONAL APPLICABILITY.

(a) This article shall be in effect only as among those states which have
enacted it into law or in which the governors have adopted it pursuant to
constitutional or statutory authority sufficient to give it the force of law as part of this
compact. Nothing contained in this article or in any supplementary agreement made
in implementation thereof shall be construed to abridge, impair or supersede any
other provision of this compact or any obligation undertaken by a state pursuant
thereto, except that if its terms so provide, a supplementary agreement in
implementation of this article may modify, expand or add to any such obligation as
among the parties to the supplementary agreement.

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