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, " ,;I ;. ~ On','5 'Z5 can hold and ~nact .legislation that will be an acceptable, as well as lln adequllte, basis for meeting both the short and long- term water needs of the Colorado River Basin." The Arizona cabinet member said the administration's pro- posal provided. "a substitute for the low-cost pumping power and the financial assistance that would have been furnished by . the Marble Canyon development. On that, basis it has been concluded thllt the best use of the Marble Canyon site is to retain it in its natural state as an addition to the existing Grand Canyon National Park." As to Hualapai Dam, "the position of the. administration remains unchanged," said Mr. Udall. "We , beli.eve that consideration of it should be deferred pending eval- uatIOn of the issues by the national water commission." More- over, he suggested, Congress should remove the Marble and Hualapai sites from the jurisdiction of the Federal Power Com- mission. And the question of interstate priorities, i.e., the con- troversial 4.4-miIIion-acre-foot guarantee to California, should be left for the states to resolve among themselves. Chairman Aspinall of the parent committee wa's critical of the administration's power-purchase proposal. He said it was not good economics and was designed solely to avoid contro- versy. "If you think your plan is a means of ending controversy," he told Secretary Udall, "you are dreaming about a Heaven that is out of rellch." Furthermore, he sllid, it would rankle private utilities, who would see in it the germ of federal steam plants. He wondered if the Bureau of Reclamation was planning to "get into the steam or nuclear powerplant business." Mr. Udall re- plied, "Our main objectives are to reduce, costs and controversy." If e added that the administration's plan would provide reclama- tion with a flexibility in the future that might disappear with the development of the last hydro-power sites. Congressman Hosmer commented tartly on the fact that the administration proposal had not even been introduced as a hilI yet. "Apparently it isn't so popular," he said. But Rep. Ed Edmondson (D-Okla.) interrupted to say that he planned to introduce the bilI the next day. Mr. Hosmer also twitted the secretary about the administration's change of position with respect to river development. "Isn't it true," he asked, "that last year you llpproved one dam for Pllt Brown, thllt now you don't give a dam for Ronald Reagan?" Water Commission Incurs Criticism Even the administration-supported national water commis- sion got a roughing-up from the subcommittee. Mr. Aspinall said there alrelldy existed a National Wate,r Study Council, which could make whatever study was needed, thus obviating creation of a new group. Mr. Udllll replied that he preferred a commission outside the, federal government to make a national survey and bring in a recommendation. Mr. Aspinall observed that water study commissions had existed under both the Truman -54-