WSP02511 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

002 ~S~ man of the House Interior Committee) and President Johnson wanted us to do. We were told to build a regional plan and we did, and we got agreement of all seven states. But in my opinion we hHd too much in the bill. We shouldn't try to do everything that will be needed over the next 30 years in one bill. Next session we should put in a less controversial bill." Mr. Udall and Mr. Rhodes thought such an approach could be financed with an appropriation of no more than $600 million. "We have come a long- W::ly' in the past two years," Mr. Rhodes said. "We now have overwhelming sympathy in the Congress for our need to get more water. We have overwhelming sympathy on our side in our struggle with California." Arizona's third House member, Congressman Senner, agreed in. a separate statement that the federal approach was best. "Who is going to lend the $700 million needed and defer pay- ments for seven to 10 years while we, build the dams?" he asked. "No one but Uncle SHm, who ::I.1so will write off about 10 per cent of the obligation for fish and wildlife and flood control." He predicted that CAP would go through the next Congress, "although we might have to eliminate one dam." Stick Together, Pleads Mr. Ely While Arizonans talked of bare-bones bills and go-it-alone projects, an influential Californian continued to talk of the same regional approach which had failed and of preserving seven-state unity behind it. Northcutt Ely, speaking at the 10th Arizona Watershed Symposium at Tempe, said Colorado River legislation had a good chance in the next Congress if the Basin states would stick together. He also insisted that it wasn't Cali- fornia alone that killed the bilI that year but all six of the other Basin states. They did it. he said, because they "did not want to see the results of two years' work g-o down the drain under a flank attack" by Congressman Saylor. The latter, he said, was reported to have the votes to strip the bill down to the CAP alone without any dams. Arizona's delegation would have had to vote for the truncated bill, said Mr. Ely', and California "could not get assurance that Arizona's senators would stand firm with Senator Kuchel and Senator Murphy (of California) to repair the damage.'.' Mr. Ely pointed out that the regional bill could never have moved out of the House Interior Committee without California votes. "The bill has made notable progress against formidable difficulties," he sHid, "Hnd it has ::I, good chance-I don't say an excellent chance-of passage in the next Congress if the seven states stick together." He did see several difficulties ahead. They included con- tinued opposition by the Sierra Club, the Pacific Northwest and the House economy bloc. And there was one more problem "which I hHve decided to speHk plainly about to this Arizona audience. It is Arizona's internal politics. For 40 years the -23- ';~'-;;~.~~:;XC::.:t}::';"i~;::~t: I ';" '. ~'. . ....'::.. . ,:.,. - ." . ,". '.'~ :'~'.' ,.".. .. <:',.~";:' I ~~~~~~~~I ~;i~li:~f~[ '". "." ", .... -'. '..... ." ..".. ;..:....' .' ::~'~'.~:.::.::-;~.~:I .' '~.::.'.". . .~. ," :".- .~.:.: . ,. . '-. "