[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 17 (Wednesday, February 7, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1083-S1084]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. CRAIG:
  S. 1564. A bill to amend the Small Reclamation Projects Act of 1956 
to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to provide loan guarantees 
for water supply, conservation, quality and transmission projects, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  S. 1565. A bill to supplement the Small Reclamation Projects Act of 
1956 and to supplement the Federal Reclamation laws by providing for 
Federal cooperation in non-Federal projects and for participation by 
non-Federal 

[[Page S1084]]
agencies in Federal projects; to the Committee on Energy and Natural 
Resources.


     small reclamation projects act of 1956 amendments legislation

 Mr. CRAIG. Mr. President, I introduce two measures to expand 
the use and availability of the Small Reclamation Projects Act of 1956.
  The Small Reclamation Projects Act has provided important benefits 
throughout the reclamation West in the 40 years since it was first 
established. Over the past several years, there have been various 
discussions of ways to expand the benefits of the program. These two 
measures incorporate some of the suggestions that have been made. I 
want to emphasize that neither of the measures would affect ongoing 
projects.
  One of the measures deals with financing. At the present time, the 
Secretary is limited to using grants or loans in fulfilling the 
objectives of the act. This legislation would expand that authority to 
include the use of loan guarantees as a way of stretching the limited 
Federal resources. There has been some discussion among those 
suggesting this approach that the committee should consider expanding 
the program under the guarantees outside the 17 reclamation States to 
other States and the territories. While I do not dispute that the 
advantages of the program could be useful in the territories and other 
States, I do not want to dilute the program so that is not able to meet 
the very real needs in the arid West. Therefore, I have not included 
such an expansion in this legislation. I do agree that it is a subject 
worth discussing and it should be one of the subjects of our hearings.
  The other measure is essentially a rewrite of the existing statute to 
expand the purposes for which assistance can be received from the 
Federal Government. Irrigation remains an authorized purpose, but it 
would no longer be a required component. The purposes would not include 
the augmentation and management of local water supplies, conservation 
of water and energy, fish and wildlife conservation, supplemental water 
for existing supplies, water quality improvements, and flood control. 
There had been some discussion about the application of interest on any 
allocable irrigation component, and I would support discussing this in 
any hearings. For the moment, however, I have limited the application 
of interest on any loans to those features which are currently 
reimbursable with interest under reclamation law.
  I also believe that we should explore in our hearings exactly how to 
deal with investments that further particular Federal objectives, such 
as fish and wildlife enhancement or other features that are normally 
nonreimbursable.
  Mr. President, neither of these measures should be viewed as a final 
product, and they are not mutually exclusive. Given the timing, I 
thought it would be useful to have both measures introduced so that 
they could be reviewed by the States and water users as well as by the 
administration and other interested parties with sufficient time to 
permit Congress to consider the concepts this session. While I am not 
prepared to announce a schedule of hearings at this time, I do want to 
indicate to my colleagues that I do intend to have the Subcommittee on 
Forests and Public Land Management of the Committee on Energy and 
Natural Resources conduct hearings early this year.
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