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<br />the papers, you have been right in the middle of at least some water <br />meters and other problems. Why don't you review where we stand. <br /> <br />MR. SPARKS: Mr. Chairman and Members of the Board, we have sent you a <br />memorandum dated March 7, 1978, prpviding the information that we had <br />at that time concerning the pending appropriations in the United States <br />Congress for reclamation projects during FY 1979. Hearings before the I <br />Public Works .Subcommittees o~.the Committees on Appropriations in both <br />the House and Se?ate have b~en going on .now for ?bout three w~e~s. <br />Those hearings will terminate about April 12. within about forty-five <br />days after the hearings terminate, we expect that the subcommittee <br />will make its' recommendations to the fuil 'committee. This will be <br />somewhere around the first of June. Then it generally' does not take <br />very long for the full committee to act upon the subcommittee recom- <br />mendations. We anticipate that the full report will go to bo~h.the <br />Senate and House not later than July. Shortly thereafter, we expect <br />full C~ngressional .action. <br /> <br />I would anticipate that around the first of August the Public Works <br />appropriation will have passed the Congress and will have been sent to <br />the President, and maybe even a little befpre~that. The next federa~ <br />fiscal year, as you know, starts October 1, 1979. <br /> <br />The President has informed the members of the Executive Department that <br />he is opposed to any new starts, any new Reclamation or Corps of . <br />Engineers starts, for FY .1979. .This inclu<:1es all pf our projects in <br />Colorado, with the exception of the Narrows Project, which cannot be <br />classified as a new start, since appropriation funds have been appro- <br />priated now continuously for the last five years, with the exception <br />of this current year. It is already in a constFuction st?tus. .How~ <br />ever, the President did not recommend funds for the Narrows for the <br />coming fiscal year. <br /> <br />We have met with key members of the Colorado Congressional Delegatiop; <br />namely, Congressman. Evans and congress~an Johnson, in whose diptrict <br />all of these projects are, and with Senator Haskell and with the staff <br />of Senator Hart. We have met with the Commissioner of Reclamation and <br />his staff in Washington, D. c.; and we have talked and met with the <br />local project officers of the B~reau of Reclamation. It is always a <br />difficult matter to overcome the President's ~ecommendations. Never- <br />theless, we have done it on numerOus occasions in the past. We are <br />faced with almost insurmountable prob~ems in connection with the . <br />Fruitland-Mesa and Savery-Pot Hook Projects. The prOblem that we are <br />not able to overcome there is one of benefit-cost ratio. There is <br />considerable reluctance at the present time in Congress to fund I <br />projects which don't meet a favorable benefit-cost ratio. There is <br />no law of this country which, requires any particular benef~t-cost <br />ratio; but:, because of the President's attitude"even the best friends <br />we have in Congress in reclamation matters are reluctant to press <br />projects with an unfavorable benefit-cost ratio. <br /> <br />Analyzing all the factors and realizing that it is the Congressional <br />pelegation that will have to bear the burden of securing additional <br />funds, all we can do here at the state level is recommend. It is our <br /> <br />-2- <br />