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" ,. . . ,...-.:.:............... . -rs= \ ...\~ V'VESTER.N STATES V'VATER. COUNCIL. .!~'fJ S'}/llh .'wJ r:'JlI I SllIlr .!OO / S'll/I.'IJ.., (.'//1', (:f'lh ,'/-11111 "how (i ~.....' May 20, 1983 MEMORANDUM TO: All Council Members ,~ FROM: .D. Craig Bell, Executive Director SUBJECT: Update , We recently published in our newsletter a copy of a letter to the President signed by fifteen western Republican Senators expressing concerns about the concept of upfront financing for water resource projects. Enclosed are two additional letters written by William Gianelli provided to us by Pat O'Meara of the National Water Resources Association. They are in response to the Senators' letter. As instructed, we requested an opportunity to testify at the recent hearings held by Senator Abdnor on the subject of water project financing. However, the Subcommittee chose to invite only representa- tives of the Administration and governors. In the end, however, only one witness gave testimony at the hearing; Alice Rivlin of the Con- gressional Budget Office. The Admipistration allowed no spokesman to testify at the hearings on its behalf. Furthermore, the Subcommittee was unsuccessful in its attempts to have governors testify. The only Senator who attended the hearings was Senator Abdnor himself, except for the presence of Senator Humphrey from New Hampshire for about five minutes. The statement of the WSWC has been submitted to Senator Abdnor for the record of the hearings. In a related matter, Congressm~h~)recently held an informal meeting in Washington, D.C. to consfOer development of a legiSlativ~. mechanism to assist iu financing of ~ater projects. As you recall, , Gon ressman Pashayan introduced in the last session of Con ress ..----- ~R. ,~c was designed to esta lish an ~nsurance un to assist wac~r auchorities by providing Federal loan guarantees in financing the construction of water projects. The Council endorsed such legis- lation and indeed, in its recently adopted position on cost sharing, reiterated its support for the general concept. However, although drafts of the proposed legislation were not circulated at the recent meeting in Washington, D.C., it was clear that the intention was to finance a very broad category of water projects across the nation by converting the accumulated balance in the reclamation fund to an in- surance fund utilized to make guarantees rather than direct expendi- tures. Concerns were raised by some of those attending about such use of the reclamation fund for financing projects across the nation. It was felt that an appropriation from the general treasury would be more appropriate for this purpose.