Laserfiche WebLink
When I went to Congress, Senator 'Watkins was there, Senators Johnson <br />and Millikin of Colorado were there, Senator Joe O'Mahoney was there, <br />Representative Barrett of Wyoming was on my Committee. Senator Bennett <br />carne a year or two later, Senator Clinton Anderson was there. Congress - <br />man John Carroll, Chenoweth, Granger, Fernandez, and others were there. <br />You folks know politicians. You know that each one of us is a <br />prima donna, and to get us to work together is an almost impossible oper- <br />ation. But, with people like O'Mahoney, Ed Johnson, Gene Millikin, <br />Clinton Anderson, Arthur Watkins, Wallace Bennett, and so forth, it <br />became a very successful operation in Congress. <br />Now let me tell you something. It isn't Congress that does the <br />job. It's the people at hone. It was the formation of the Agualantes <br />and all of those other people at home who were asking for the kind of <br />legislation we needed. They set the fire to the Meatbers of Congress. <br />They gave its the necessary support. There was one time when this project <br />was being considered when Ed Johnson said to me, "If you do what you plan <br />on doing you'll never be re-elected.'} And I said, "Ed, I don't want to <br />be re- elected if i have to do what seems to be the thing of the day to <br />do." Such experiences brought us closer together. <br />The bill was prepared, prepared by the Bureau, which had good leader- <br />ship at that time, good people in the upper echelon of authority, and sent <br />to Congress. it was introduced. The year 1955 cane along and we really <br />began to consider it. We wondered how we were going to get along because <br />the President happened to be a Republican and the Democrat's were in control <br />of the Congress. All the work that was done by all of the people interested, <br />including especially the Agualantes, they had every vote checked. They <br />knew where Congressman John Saylor and his group were. They knew where <br />our adversaries from California were. They knew that they had difficulties <br />perhaps with one or two from Arizona. They knew these things. Thank <br />goodness President Eisenhower announced for re- election on the day of the <br />vote. Remember that, Felix? Instead of having some 35 votes to spare in <br />the House we got 125 plus, a real majority. <br />There were some differences when the bill was presented by the Bureau <br />that had to be resolved. One of the differences, 1 have to be frank now, <br />Wallace. One of the differences was we had a pattern, a new pattern. All <br />of these run -of -tire -river dams, and only three money makers finally re- <br />ceived the approval of Congress. Counting the storage reservoir between <br />New Mexico and Colorado made four, but the Navajo seemed to contribute <br />nothing to our operation of the Colorado River except maybe some regula- <br />tion. The net Basin fonds were to be used on the projects that were to <br />be authorized as the participating projects of the Colorado River Storage <br />Project Act. Utah sat here with the Central Utah Project that would have <br />taken practically all these basin funds for the next fifty years or so. <br />We suggested an initial operation for the Central Utah Project, and these <br />good people from Utah, when once they saw what was involved, their cooper - <br />ation was magnificant. <br />Let me tell you something else, a truly interesting part. These <br />are things that you don't find in books. Clinton Anderson, that fine <br />4 <br />r <br />