BOARD02203

• Board Meeting Date: 3/20/1975
• Description: Agenda or Table of Contents, Minutes, Resolution
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Meeting

construction under the control of the Bureau of Reclamation; by the
Upper Colorado River Storage Project; and third, by.the authorization
of the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project. It is my feeling that these projects
would never have gotten off the ground if it had not been for the united
position of the representatives of all of Colorado.

. State. .auth. orities should be very careful of trying to establish priorities I
-of cqnstruction of projects after authorization of various projects has
been accomplished. If all parties and interests were working cooper-
atively, diligently and honestly before authorization - and projects
at time of authorization were feasible - then it would appear to me that
chronological order of authorization should prevail at the time of the
start of the construction of the various projects.

While I was a member of.Congress and of the Committee on Interior and
Insular Affairs of the House, we tried to be fair in our choice of
authorizations and the app~opriations of construction monies so that
all parts of reclamation west could be treated fairly - keeping in mind
factors of prior attention, population, potential contributions, and
relative importance of area to overall reclamation west as we proceeded
to consider reclamation projects and the matters attendant thereto.

Amounts of money for construction of reclamation projects must follow
the usual procedures which are:

1. The study by and recommendation of the Office of Management and
Budget;

2. The President's Annual. Budget Message to Congress;

3. The attention of and the disposition by Congress; and

4. The final attention by the President of the United States.

When the final decision has been made and ratified by all parties, it
seems to me that a delayed action like an impoundment of funds on
certain projects, is.the last thing to be desired. To me, it has always
seemed unfair - even,approaching dishonesty in relation to the people
generally - if legislation has been considered and passed by Congress,
approved by the Executive Department - then to have it undone by an
action of the Executive Department who joined in the first place in its
recommendations and then in the final approval. The only exception that
I personally think that could be justified would be the exercise by
the President of his authority to impound funds for which he had made
no original request - either through himself or through an agency
controlled by him.

All areas of reclamation west must be considered in the, distribution of
funds made available to the reclamation program. Most certainly areas
which have made large contributions to the Reclamation Fund have a right
to expect a fair share, providing of course, they have feasible projects
ready to be considered and constructed.

I

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