TO AMEND THE RECLAMATION PROJECT ACT OF 1939 MONDAY, JANUARY 12, 1948 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, RECLAMATION OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LANDS, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 o'clock a. m., in the committee room of the House Committee on Public Lands, Hon. Robert F. Rockwell (chairman of the subcommittee), presiding. Mr. ROCKWELL. We will come to order, please. The Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation has met this morning to consider H. R. 3194, a bill to amend the Reclamation Project Act of 1939, introduced by Mr. D'Ewart. (The bill is as follows:) [H. R. 3194, 80th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To amend the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 9 (e) of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 (U. S. C., 1940 edition, title 43, sec. 485h (e)) is amended to read as follows: "(e) In addition to entering into repayment contracts pursuant to the provisions of subsection (d) of this section, the Secretary may enter into short-term contracts to furnish water for irrigation purposes: Provided, That "(1) such contracts may be made with any water user or any group of water users within the area served by the project; "(2) such contracts shall be made for a term of no longer than five years; "(3) such contracts shall require payments annually in advance of delivery of water thereunder; “(4) in making such contracts, the Secretary shall act in conformity with the provisions for repayment for irrigation as made by the Congress; “(5) any and all amounts payable to the United States under such shortterm contracts in excess of appropriate charges for operation and maintenance during the period of water deliveries thereunder shall be credited to the repayment of the construction costs allocated to irrigation and allocated for repayment by the water users." SEC. 2. Section 9 of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 is amended by adding thereto subsection (f) reading as follows: "SEC. 9. (f) As an alternative to any other contractual arrangement with the Secretary for the delivery of water for irrigation to any part of a project area authorized by law, including the construction of any distribution system necessary to such delivery, any organization empowered to engage in the distribution of water for the irrigation of any area or any part of an area for the irrigation of which a project has been authorized, has received an appropriation, is under construction, or has been constructed and with which a repayment contract has not been executed, may, at its option, obtain from the Secretary, who is hereby authorized and directed to negotiate the same, a repayment contract, which said contract shall provide for "(1) annual payments, which need not be equal, by the organization over a period of not to exceed fifty years after the first delivery of water to such organization so calculated as to return to the United States, without interest, an appropriate and proportionate share of the reimbursable cost of the project allocated to irrigation to be repaid by the water users, together with any construction cost incurred exclusively for any distribution system of the contracting organization: Provided, That such payments shall not be greater than those provided under any alternative form of contractual arrangement with the Secretary available to the contracting organization; "(2) the quantities and classes of water to be delivered under such contract and the times and places agreed upon for such deliveries; "(3) the vesting as appurtenant to the lands within the boundaries of the contracting organization of the perpetual right to use the water deliverable from such project to such organization: Provided, That all such rights shall vest in the manner and to the extent authorized by the laws of the State in which such irrigable lands are situated; "(4) the time at which designated portions of the project facilities will be transferred to the contracting organization for the care, operation, and maintenance: Provided, That all organizations receiving water under the same project shall be accorded equality of treatment in the transfer to them of project facilities for care, operation, and maintenance: And provided further, That any such contracting organization upon the execution of a contract under this subsection, shall be entitled to take, for care, operation, and maintenance, all project facilities, including distribution systems, which serve it exclusively and shall be entitled, in conjunction with other organizations to take over all project facilities utilized jointly, for care, operation, and maintenance, as and when a suitable agency therefor has been created, all in accordance as nearly as may be, with the principles of subsection g of section 4 of the Second Deficiency Act, fiscal year 1924 (43 Stat. 702).” No organization shall be required in any such contract to assume any obligation other than those specifically authorized by this Act and consistent with this subsection. Mr. ROCKWELL. I will ask Mr. D'Ewart how he wishes to have us proceed with the consideration of this bill. Mr. D'EWART. Mr. Chairman, H. R. 3194, I believe is probably as important a piece of legislation as will come before this committee this session. It has to do with the contract between the Bureau of Reclamation and the water users organizations. It purports to amend section 9 (e) which is commonly known as the "short and long term contract" which is being used quite extensively in writing contracts between the Bureau and the irrigation districts at the present time. The discussion of this bill first came up as a part of the bill you introduced a year ago, known as the Rockwell bill. It was contained in your bill, but due to the difficulties in handling that legislation the part of your bill that had to do with these contracts was eliminated and subsequently introduced as a separate bill, which is the one before us today. Some hearing were held on this matter in March and April. Testimony was taken at Fresno last summer regarding this legislation, and the problem is an acute one, and is recognized not only by irrigators and their organizations but by the Bureau. They are anxious for some amendments. We do not propose in this legislation to in any way touch section 9 (d), which is the original provision of the legislation having to do with contract. We do propose to recommend amendments to 9 (e). We are hoping in the discussion of this legislation that we will not enter into the matter of 160-acre limitation. That is a matter that is before the Senate at this time, and in preliminary discussions of his bill it is felt that should be taken up as a matter by itself and not be injected into the discussion of this particular legislation. It is also hoped that in the discussion of this bill we will not enter into matters concerning power, since that was taken up under your bill. In other words, we hope to limit discussions of this bill to the matter of the contracts as provided under section 9 (e) and the amendments thereto that are recognized as needed not only by the water users but also by the Bureau of Reclamation. We have done a considerable amount of preliminary work concerning this bill. We have had various meetings with the Bureau, and they, I believe, are going to present some amendments to the original bill as presented by me. The National Reclamation Association has recognized the situation in Resolution No. 21, adopted at Phoenix last year, and there were various speeches made during that convention concerning amendments to section 9 (e). So that we may get this broad picture before us, I would like to suggest that we proceed by first hearing the Department, Mr. Straus, of the Bureau of Reclamation, and his views regarding the proposal of the Bureau as concerns amendments to section 9 (e). He is going to give the broad background, the history and their views as regards changes in the contracts that are now being presented to the waterusers organizations. Following that I would like to suggest that the report of the Bureau be read, and, following that, I would suggest that Mr. Will, attorney for the Bureau of Reclamation, present the technical explanation of the Bureau's recommendations. That will probably take most of this morning, with the presentation that they will give, and with the explanations that the committee members will request. Then I think that tomorrow we should have Mr. Harris, who represents certain irrigators in the Central Valley of California; Mr. Edson Abel, who represents the California Farm Bureau Federation as an attorney for some of their organization, and irrigators, and others who are concerned with the amendments to section 9 (e) of the original reclamation act. I would like to request that Mr. Straus present his statement and history and background for us at this time, Mr. Chairman. Mr. MURDOCK. May I ask Congressman D'Ewart a question? Mr. MURDOCK. I recall the action taken at the National Reclamation Association meeting at Phoenix last October, and their endorsement of the Rockwell bill, as it was reported out of our committee. You have just said you do not think we ought to bring that in in any way in connection with this bill, nor do you think we ought to have any discussion of the 160-acre limitation. I haven't studied this bill, Congressman D'Ewart. Could this bill be enacted without any direct relationship to these other two controversial matters? Mr. D'EWART. Yes. It is our belief that it can. I think we can amend section 9 (e) so it will be much more acceptable both to the Bureau and to the water users without concerning ourselves with acreage limitation or with the matter that we addressed our thoughts to in the Rockwell bill, that is the power feature. Mr. ROCKWELL. If there are no more questions by the committee, we will proceed along the line suggested by Congressman D'Ewart. I will ask Mr. Straus, the Director of the Bureau of Reclamation, to take the stand and make his statement. STATEMENT OF MICHAEL W. STRAUS, COMMISSIONER OF RECLAMATION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR Mr. STRAUS. Gentlemen, first, the Bureau of Reclamation wants to announce that it is favorable to the objectives of the bill as Con gressman D'Ewart has just stated them. We endorse and concur in the objectives of this bill. Specifically, we desire and recommend to the committee that legislation be enacted that will have the effect of providing permanency of enjoyment of water, provided under 9 (e) contracts which is not provided in the present law, which will also permit the water-users' group to express their desire as to the type of contract they wish. The provisions of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 relating to the so-called 9 (d) contracts would remain by this proposed legislation. One of the objectives of the legsilation we endorse and recommend to the committee would authorize the crediting of sums collected under 9 (e) contracts, over and above operation and maintenance costs, toward the reimbursable cost of the project assigned for recovered from the water users. All those things we join with the sponsor of this bill in seeking a way to obtain, and we believe that they are for the benefit of reclamation. I am very happy, Mr. Chairman, to be able to start this session, after all of the controversial hearings last session, in full accord with the objectives of the bill as presented here. Mr. ROCKWELL. May I also say we are very happy to be here under those circumstances. We hope that it will continue. Mr. STRAUS. I have previously, as Congressman D'Ewart said, told this committee that we did not want to and felt there was an opportunity to improve the 9 (e) contracts, which, of course, requires change in the legislation by which they are authorized. I told the committee last year that when this matter came up in connection with a bill to which I thought this particular item was irrelevant, that we did want to improve this legislation. I am publicly on record to that effect. Reclamation is many times publicly on record to that effect, so in fulfillment of that promise witness our appearance here this morning endorsing the objectives of this bill. Now, in fulfillment of what the sponsor of the bill, Congressman D'Ewart, has said as to its presentation, I think we can best serve the committee if I proceed informally instead of reading any formal statement, and provide the background of just how we get to where we are into the consideration of this bill today. After that we would like to present the Department's report, the clearance from the Bureau of the Budget to present our report this morning, and language to implement the objectives that are sought here. The basis, as we know, of all Federal reclamation is repayment to the Government of that part of the expense of bringing water to lands which, by law, is required to be repaid. That is the fundamental cornerstone on which this whole operation which the Congress and this committee has supervised and has gone forward with with so much success for 45 years. |