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there has been a determineq ~ffort to get the interest rate on reclamation and other water resource projects'raised. There is a formula in the most recent legislation which provides that the interest rate on projects will be computed on the basis of long term government obligations which are not callable or redeemable before fifteen years. Such obligations bear a much lower interest rate than short term obligations which are issued by the federal government. Various economists and some senators, particularly Senator proxmire, have urged that the interest rate applicable to water resource projects be raised. As a result of that prodding, the Water Resources Council which is an agency composed of the Secretary of the Interior, Chief of Engineers, Secretary of Agriculture, and various other federal agencies, took this matter under consideration and they did adopt a new discount rate. However, in the docu- ment which was adopted by the Senate concern- ing this subject, the Senate pointed out that there should be an accompanying reevaluation of project benefits and some very specific items were included in that Senate document in the way of project evaluations. I Congress has said that it desires that for every dollar spent, there be a dollar or more in benefits. We then have what is re- ferred to as a benefit-cost ratio. The discount rate has been raised to 4-5/8 percent by action of the Water Re- sources Council effective for all projects authorized after December 3l, 1968. If this discount rate is applied to most of the water projects in the United States without an accompanying benefit on the other side of the ledger, then a great number of projects will be below parity. This particularly applies to the West, whether it's water resource, reclamation, soil conservation, or flood con- trol projects. We are in serious trouble if I