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\)\)14':\g, . - 5 - Jim Maddy said that an effort at the staff level to do just that was now under way, and that on April 8 the congressional staff from many western states would meet on water issues. (lie are aware of this, and Bill McDonald is scheduled to talk to that group.) At this point, Watt decided to move the agenda alonj further and he turned to Governor Olson on the subject of cost-sharing. Governor Olson's response was we had in fact just discussed it and that we and Interior agreed we need to build a coalition. The Secretary responded that he had been very hlunt on the subject when he met with the IS Senators recently and that he went out of his way to puncture whatever belief they may have had that they could vote in favor of their projects but against other projects. . The subject then turned to the problem of the BIM planning regs. He explained that they are now ready to go final with these regulations and that they have considered our comments (the comments of the four or five western states) very carefully and have tried to make a very definite effort to respond to our concerns regarding consistency with state and local plans, public participation, and a number of other issues. He explained that they are not able to write into the regulations a requirement that BLM follow state procedures. He explained that they have offered the protection that we requested for surface owners, and that they have given the Governors a veto or quasiveto over the final decision. They gave us a copy of the rewritten regulations and, at our request, gave the states until April 18 to respond with any comments on the revised regulations. The Secretary went considerably out of his way at this point to say that he expects to hear from the Governors on April 18, and not from the WESTPO staff on this issue. It was generally agreed that Jim Maddy would head up the coordination effort to get the Governors comments to the Secretary by April lB. The Secretary then turned to the subject of the Interior asset management program. He explained that he thought the whole program had been handled very badly with its publicity, but that if you understood the program it was "a phenomenal program" and that he wants his state directors to meet with Governors to explain the asset management program to them. He pointedly compared the amount the aIOOunt of land sold by the western states to the amount of land sold by the Department of Interior in a recent year. For example, he claims that in 1981 Colorado sold 605 acres of public land, and the DOl sold 645 acres. He claims that "all we need to do is get the truth out, and that understanding will follow." . He then turned the discussion over to Assistant Secretary Carruthers who gave the group a short hriefing, complete with