University of Colorado Law Review Volume 55 Issue 3 Spring 1984

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1984] COLORADO'S WATER RESOURCES 403 users were willing and able to finance. The Nixon administration rarely sought new funds for reclamation. It funded pre-construction activities and appropriated funds to complete ongoing projects. Funds were often dispensed slowly in the Nixon years and it was the Nixon administration that first tested the President's right to im- pound funds appropriated by the Congress.80 President Carter was more direct. His "hit list" confronted and angered many members of Congress, but Congress nonetheless sus- tained his veto of public works legislation containing water projects to which he objected.81 Congress and President Carter both made concessions and Colorado's Dallas Creek and Dolores Projects were among those projects for which funds were eventually made availa- ble.82 Even support functions, such as the Water Resources Council and state water plans received limited appropriations83 in the Carter administration and eventually received no funding in the Reagan administration." President Reagan has been even more direct. In addition to eliminating funding for the Water Resources Council, the Reagan Administration has advocated cost sharing to an extent unknown in reclamation laws. However, a lack of statutory authority has made cost sharing negotiations difficult. This New Federalism advocated by President Reagan, insofar as it affects the development of water resources, has continued and encouraged a selective withdrawal of the federal presence85 and a strengthening of federal regulatory restraints. B. Environmental Laws The words "selective withdrawal" are used because, for exam- ple, the United States wants Colorado River Basin power revenues to 80. See Train v. New York, 420 U.S. 35 (1975). 81. 124 CONG. REC. 33, 728 (1978). 82. For an account of this sequence of events: see Minutes of the Colo. Water Cons. Bd., November 1, 1978. 83. See 43 U.S.C.S. § 1962c-6 (Law Co-op 1978) and History thereunder. The Carter administration used the Water Resources Council as a vehicle for a number of new water policy initiatives, including cost sharing. See Hillhouse & Hannay,Practical Implications of the New National Water Policy, 25 ROCKY MTN. MIN. L. INST. 22.1 (1979). 84. Telephone interview with William J.McDonald,Director,Colo.Water Cons.Bd.,in Denver, Colorado (March 1984). See Exec. Order No. 12, 319, 46 Fed. Reg. 45591 (1981), reprinted in 42 U.S.C.S. § 1962b (Law Co-op Supp. 1983) which terminated the six river basin commissions. 85. See Pascoe,Libertarian Longing,Privatization and Federalism,55 STATE GOVERN- MENT 111 (1982), for a discussion of the new federal presence.