CONTENTS Hon. Robert F. Jones, a Representative in Congress from the State Hon. Robert F. Rockwell, a Representative in Congress from the Hon. William Lemke, a Representative in Congress from the State of Michael W. Straus, Commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation, accom- panied by William E. Warne, Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Charles F. Brannan, Assistant Secretary of Agriculture, Depart- ment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.. Robert W. Sawver, president and Oregon director, National Reclama- tion Association, Bend, Oreg-- William W. Warne, Assistant Commissioner, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C. Ronald B. Harris, attorney at law, Harris, Willey & Harris, Fresno, F. O. Hagie, executive vice president, Chamber of Commerce, Seattle, Hon. Fred Norman, a Representative in Congress from the State of J. M. Dille, secretary manager, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy Clifford H. Stone, director, Colorado Water Conservation Board, and Colorado director of National Reclamation Association....... J. F. Sanders, legislative counsel, the National Grange. Harrie D. Bohlke, director of industrial relations, industrial commis- Edgar Wright, master, Washington State Grange, Seattle, Wash... Carl C. Moore, director of Northwest Public Power Association__ E. W. Rising, representing the Idaho State Reclamation Association.. Northcuth Ely, attorney at law, American Security Building, Washing- E. R. Fosdick, Assistant Director, Power Utilization, Bureau of 615, 621, 708 ΠΙ TO AMEND THE RECLAMATION PROJECT ACT OF 1939 MONDAY, MARCH 17, 1947 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON IRRIGATION AND RECLAMATION OF THE COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LANDS, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a. m., in the committee room of the House Committee on Public Lands, the Honorable Robert F. Rockwell (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. ROCKWELL. The committee will please come to order. Gentlemen of the committee, we have, after some little discussion, got this week set aside for the consideration of our reclamation bills. As those of you remember who were on this committee last year, the bill on the amendment to the fundamental reclamation law was discussed for one or two years and we never did get it out of the committee. This week we are going to try the Herculean task of agreeing on some bill that can be reported out to the House. Now, we have three bills that I should like to have this committee consider. One of them is by Congressman Jones, who is chairman of the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, and a man we should have a great deal of consideration for. I believe his bill does not tie in to the bills that Mr. Lemke and I have introduced, and therefore I think this morning it would be wise to take up H. R. 1772, Mr. Jones' bill, and see if we can dispose of that. The bill, H. R. 1772, is to provide for the flow of revenues from Federal reclamation projects into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury and to provide that revenues from Federal reclamation projects hereafter financed wholly from general funds of the Treasury shall be covered into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury. The bill will be inserted in the record at this point. (The bill is as follows:) [H. R. 1772, 80th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To provide for the flow of revenues from Federal reclamation projects into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury and to provide that revenues from Federal reclamation projects hereafter financed wholly from general funds of the Treasury shall be covered into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Act of May 9, 1938 (52 Stat. 291), is hereby amended by striking out the first proviso in the provision of such Act relating to the disposition of moneys received by the United States in connection with any irrigation projects, including the incidental power features thereof, constructed by the Secretary of the Interior through the Bureau of Reclamation, and inserting in lieu thereof the following: "Provided, That, after the close of each fiscal year, there shall be covered into the General Treasury as 'miscellaneous receipts' that proportion of the net revenues not required to meet contractural 1 obligations of the United States received from each such project during such fiscal year which the sum of general-fund appropriations made after the effective date of this proviso for each such project bears to the aggregate of all appropriations and allotments made for such project: Provided further, That when the sum of transfers from the reclamation fund to miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury with respect to a project equals the sum of all general-fund appropriations made for such project subsequent to the effective date of this proviso then the amount to be transferred to miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury with respect to each such project, after the close of each fiscal year, shall be that proportion of the net revenues received from each such project during such fiscal year which the sum of all general-fund appropriations and allotments bear to the aggregate of all appropriations and allotments made for such project." SEC. 2. This Act shall become effective upon the first day of the fiscal year following the fiscal year in which it shall become law. Mr. ROCKWELL. We have a favorable report on H. R. 1772, but Mr. Jones tells me that he wishes to change the bill and that he has the copies of the changes coming in here in a few minutes. They will be here by the time he finishes with his testimony, and I think probably we might have this report read to the committee. Mr. GRANT (the clerk). (Reads:) THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR, MY DEAR MR. WELCH: I am glad to comply with your request for an expression of my views on H. R. 1772, a bill to provide for the flow of revenues from Federal reclamation projects into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury and to provide that revenues from Federal reclamation projects hereafter financed wholly from general funds of the Treasury shall be covered into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury. revenues * * * I have no objection to the enactment of the bill. H. R. 1772 would start a flow of funds into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury from existing Federal reclamation projects upon the expiration of one fiscal year following the fiscal year in which the bill had been enacted into law. The amount that would thus be covered into miscellaneous receipts would be "that proportion of the net received from each such project which the sum of general-fund appropriations made after the effective date of this proviso bears to the aggregate of all appropriations and allotments made for such project." Under existing law (the present Hayden-O'Mahoney amendment), no provision is made for the flow of revenues into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury until "after the net revenues derived from the sale of power shall have repaid those constructions costs repaid by power revenues therefrom * * allocated to power to be Under the terms of the bill, when following the procedure described in the preceding paragraph, the aggregate of the revenues covered into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury with respect to a project had equaled the sum of all general-fund appropriations made for that project subsequent to the effective date of the bill, then the amount to be transferred to miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury would be "that proportion of the net revenues received from * such project * which the sum of all general fund appropriations and allotments (for such project) bears to the aggregate of all appropriations and allotments made for such project." Finally, under the terms of the bill, where a project had been wholly financed from general funds of the Treasury appropriated subsequent to the effective date of the bill, then all net revenues from such project would be covered into miscellaneous receipts of the Treasury. To correct an apparent typographical error, I suggest that at page 2, line 19, the word "bears" be substituted for the word “bear.” In addition, I believe that more ready understanding of the background of this bill would be facilitated by the incorporation in it of a statement, in the nature of a preamble, reading along the following lines: "Whereas for many years it has been recognized that the creation, operation, and maintenance of reservoirs and other works on navigable streams, or tributaries thereof, incident to the construction, operation, and maintenance of projects for the reclamation by irrigation of arid or semiarid lands, and for purposes related thereto, reduces the incidence and extent of destructive floods which, among other things, upset orderly processes, cause loss of life and property, |