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projects for the past year. Basically it's a battle over the discount rate and a long effort by OHB to require beneficiaries of federal pro- grams to pay more of the total cost and claims by the nation's water men who allege the present evaluation system does not include secondary benefits. The President must approve the criteria finally on which a new evaluation method is based, and no one here doubts the new criteria will be closer to what OI~ wants than to what the Council wants. The benefit-cost ratio is presently based on criteria approved on May 15, 1962. In an effort to break the stalemate between OHB and the Council, Chairman Jennings Randolph, D-W.Va., of the Senate Public Works Commit- tee on Aug. 4 asked W. Don Maughan, WRC director, to put the recommenda- tions of the WRC task force into legislative language. Maughan will comply directly, and hearings of the Committee are likely to be held sometime this fall. Congress has been having a running battle with OMB over water projects for years, with o~m winning most of the skir- mishes. 14any here believe the day of widespread construction of water projects is passing. The Council has just published a study on sharing costs of water development projects. It was done for the Council by Daniel H. Hoggan, Assistant Director of the Utah Water Research Laboratory. It is called "State and Local Capability to Share Financial Responsibility of Water Development with the Federal Government." Copies may be obtained from the Water Resources Council #800, 2120 L Street NW, Washington, D. C. 20037. BOR TRANSFERRED The Bureau of Outdoor Recreation was transferred on Aug. 20 from the jurisdiction of Harrison Loesch, Assistant Interior Secretary for public lands, to John W. Larson, the new Assistant Interior Secretary for programs and planning, without public notice. Larson is a former San Francisco attorney who was confirmed in his new post by the Senate on July 27 and took over his new duties immediately. Interior Depart- ment sources said BOR as a planning and program evaluation agency fit more closely with the offices under Larson's jurisdiction than those under Loesch's jurisdiction (Bureau of Land ~~nagement, Bureau of Indian Affairs and Office of Territories). As legislation is now before Congress to create a new Assistant Interior Secretaryship for Indian and territorial affairs, Loesch may soon be left with only B~~ under his jurisdiction. Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton is known to have complained that Loesch is a poor administrator. Loesch is a former Montrose, Colo. attorney. -2-