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000884 commissions and the mechanics for their establishment, rather than at the baslc idea of creating the commissions or performing the river basin planning. The States objected to the establishlnent of a River Basin Planning Commis- sion at the request of only one State. They contended that the majority rule should prevail. They also objected to appointment by the President of the State's representatives on the Commissions, and the resulting Federal nature of the commissions. They insisted on the right to appoint their own representatives. The States also desired lanc;juage that would recognize their primary interest in water resources--the compliance of the Federal gov8rnment with States' water rights laws. Principally as a result of efforts of the Interstate Conference on Water Problems of the Council of State Governments, the staff of the Senate Interior Committee, the National Reclamation Association, and others. S. 2246 was materially modified in the interim between the 87th and the 88th Congresses. These revisions appear in S. 1111. Again this year the Senate Committee held hearings on S. 1111, and on November 26th reported the bill with several amendments. On December 4th the Senate passed S. 1111 after accepting its Interior Committee's amendments ~ bloc and adding a number of amend- ments suggested by Senator Allott on the Senate floor. A copy of S. 1111. as amended. and passed by the Senate, and a section ana lysis are attached. ~ J S. 1111, as passed by the Senate, seems to be much more acceptable to the States than was its 87th Congress predecessor. S. 2246. Some of the changes that have been made in the proposed legislation are of a clarifying nature and do not require special attention. The major changes made to meet certain of the former objections and to convert S. 2246 to S. 1111 as passed by the Senate include the following; (1) In Section 1 the words "of 1963" have been eliminated from the short title "Water Resources Planning Act." ~ " (2) The words "and conducted" of S. 2246 have been omitted in S. 1111 from the statement of Congressional policy in Section 2 stating that the conservation, development, and utilization of the water and related land resources shall be planned and conducted on a comprehensive and coordinated basis. This change was made to give further assurance that S. 1111 would provide for planning only and would not include construction phases of development. - 3 -