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000412 -12- power "to dispose of and make needful rules and regulations respecting the Lerritory or other property belonging to the United States." (See United States v, Hanson, 167 Federal, 881; Burley v. United States et al., 179 Federal 1). Some reclamation project authorizations, such as the Boulder Canyon Project, were based on the commerce clause of the Constitution. As late as June 5, 1950 the concept of the authority for Federal reclamation was broadened in the important United States Supreme Court case of the United States v. Gerlach Livestock Company. Vfuile holding that Congress has directed that, in the Federal Reclama- i;ion program, state-created water rights must be recognized, the Court said: ll_~_ " " -0} {> Thus the power of Congress to promote the general welfare through large-scale projects for reclamation, irrigation, or other internal improvement, is now as clear and ample as its power to accomplish the same results indirectly through resort.to strained interpretation of the power over navigation" . (Emphasis supplied) There is thus established, on the bases above briefly reviewed, the right of the United States to engage in the reclamation of land in the national interest. Certain incidental benefits from the reclamatiqn program, such as flood control, are also related to the national interest. The authority for certain non-reimbursable costs of a reclamation project, including the interest- free investment in irrigation works, is also thereby established. It is well knovm, of course, that irrigation, pocrer and municipal V/ater beneficiaries are required to make repayments of specified amounts of the construction costs. In t he case o:f the investment in power features of a project, interest is collected :from the consumers; and in the case of municipal water beneficiaries, interest mayor may not be collected in the discretion of the Secretary of Interior.