[House Report 108-757]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



108th Congress                                                   Report
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 2d Session                                                     108-757

======================================================================



 
 ADDITIONAL AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE RECLAMATION SAFETY 
                          OF DAMS ACT OF 1978

                                _______
                                

October 7, 2004.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 
              State of the Union and ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

  Mr. Pombo, from the Committee on Resources, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                        [To accompany H.R. 4893]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

  The Committee on Resources, to whom was referred the bill 
(H.R. 4893) to authorize additional appropriations for the 
Reclamation Safety of Dams Act of 1978, having considered the 
same, report favorably thereon without amendment and recommend 
that the bill do pass.

                          Purpose of the Bill

    The purpose of H.R. 4893 is to authorize additional 
appropriations for the Reclamation Safety of Dams Act of 1978.

                  Background and Need for Legislation

    Approximately 50 percent of the Bureau of Reclamation's 
dams were built between 1900 and 1950. The majority of these 
dams were built before current state-of-the-art design and 
construction practices. Congress authorized the Reclamation 
Safety of Dams (SOD) program in 1978 to identify potential 
infrastructure risk within the agency's aging dams and to carry 
out corrective actions expeditiously when unreasonable public 
risk is identified. The original SOD Act (the Act) provided 
$100 million in spending authority for modifications. This 
authority has been subsequently increased by Congress over the 
last twenty years; however the program's current authorization 
is entirely committed to ongoing projects.
    To date, the Bureau of Reclamation has performed 64 SOD 
modifications and several others are currently underway. In the 
course of implementing the SOD Program, the agency believes 
there are a number of activities that require sufficient 
appropriations to be available before the activity is 
initiated. The current authorization levels of the Act will be 
reached in fiscal years 2004 and 2005. While sufficient funds 
will be available to carry out planned activities identified in 
these years, the Bureau of Reclamation believes that 
legislation is needed to increase the SOD authorization ceiling 
so it can prepare for future SOD modifications. The agency 
believes that without a program ceiling increase, the result 
could be restricted reservoir levels to manage the public risks 
associated with aging structures. Reservoir restrictions 
typically do not protect the public as effectively as 
structural modification and can have economic impacts on water 
users, recreation, fish and wildlife, and other benefits of a 
project.
    H.R. 4893 raises the SOD authorization level by $540 
million. The agency estimates that this will provide enough 
spending authority for an additional ten years. The bill also 
requires the Bureau of Reclamation to consult with project 
beneficiaries upon performing SOD modifications. Since local 
project beneficiaries pay for a share of the modifications, 
some believe that requiring more beneficiary input and 
knowledge will reduce costs and bring another dimension of 
thinking into the process.

                            Committee Action

    Congressman Ken Calvert (R-CA) introduced H.R. 4893 on July 
22, 2004. The bill was referred to the Committee on Resources 
and within the Committee to the Subcommittee on Water and 
Power. A hearing was held on the bill on September 9, 2004. On 
September 15, 2004, the Full Resources Committee met to 
consider the bill. The Subcommittee on Water and Power was 
discharged from further consideration by unanimous consent. No 
amendments were offered and the bill was ordered favorably 
reported to the House of Representatives by unanimous consent.

            Committee Oversight Findings and Recommendations

    Regarding clause 2(b)(1) of rule X and clause 3(c)(1) of 
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the 
Committee on Resources' oversight findings and recommendations 
are reflected in the body of this report.

                   Constitutional Authority Statement

    Article I, section 8 of the Constitution of the United 
States grants Congress the authority to enact this bill.

                    Compliance With House Rule XIII

    1. Cost of Legislation. Clause 3(d)(2) of rule XIII of the 
Rules of the House of Representatives requires an estimate and 
a comparison by the Committee of the costs which would be 
incurred in carrying out this bill. However, clause 3(d)(3)(B) 
of that rule provides that this requirement does not apply when 
the Committee has included in its report a timely submitted 
cost estimate of the bill prepared by the Director of the 
Congressional Budget Office under section 402 of the 
Congressional Budget Act of 1974.
    2. Congressional Budget Act. As required by clause 3(c)(2) 
of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and 
section 308(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974, this 
bill does not contain any new budget authority, spending 
authority, credit authority, or an increase or decrease in 
revenues or tax expenditures.
    3. General Performance Goals and Objectives. As required by 
clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII, the general performance goal or 
objective of this bill is to authorize additional 
appropriations for the Reclamation Safety of Dams Act of 1978.
    4. Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate. Under clause 
3(c)(3) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives and section 403 of the Congressional Budget Act 
of 1974, the Committee has received the following cost estimate 
for this bill from the Director of the Congressional Budget 
Office:

                                                September 17, 2004.
Hon. Richard W. Pombo,
Chairman, Committee on Resources,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 4893, a bill to 
authorize additional appropriations for the Reclamation Safety 
of Dams Act of 1978.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Julie 
Middleton.
            Sincerely,
                                               Douglas Holtz-Eakin.
    Enclosure.

H.R. 4893--A bill to authorize additional appropriations for the 
        Reclamation Safety of Dams Act of 1978

    Summary: H.R. 4893 would increase the ceiling on amounts 
authorized to be appropriated for the Reclamation Safety of 
Dams Act by $540 million (excluding adjustments for inflation). 
Assuming appropriation of the necessary amounts, CBO estimates 
that implementing the bill would cost $135 million over the 
2005-2009 period and an additional $465 million after 2009 
(including costs to cover anticipated inflation). Enacting H.R. 
4893 would not affect direct spending or revenues.
    In addition, the bill would increase the cost threshold 
from $750,000 to $1.25 million that causes the Bureau of 
Reclamation to prepare a safety of dams modification report for 
the Congress and would make other administrative changes to the 
program. Based on information from the bureau, CBO expects that 
these provisions would have no significant cost.
    H.R. 4893 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector 
mandates as defined in Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) and 
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments. 
Any costs incurred by state or local governments to match or 
reimburse the federal funds authorized by this legislation 
would result from participating in a voluntary federal program.
    Estimated cost to the Federal Government: The estimated 
budgetary impact of H.R. 4893 is shown in the following table. 
The costs of this legislation fall within budget function 300 
(natural resources and environment).

------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                By fiscal year, in millions of dollars--
                               -----------------------------------------
                                 2004   2005   2006   2007   2008   2009
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                    SPENDING SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION

Dam Safety Spending Under
 Current Law
    Estimated Authorization        55     48     57      0      0      0
     Level \1\................
    Estimated Outlays.........     30     37     49     24     13      6
Proposed Changes:
    Estimated Authorization         0      0      0     60     62     63
     Level....................
    Estimated Outlays.........      0      0      0     31     47     57
Dam Safety Spending Under H.R.
 4893
    Estimated Authorization        55     48     57     60     62     63
     Level....................
    Estimated Outlays.........     30     37     49     55     60     63
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ The 2004 amount is an estimate of the amount appropriated for the
  bureau's Dam Safety Program. The 2005 and 2006 levels are the agency's
  estimate of the use of the remaining authorization level for this
  program.

    Basis of estimate: This bill would increase the amounts 
authorized to be appropriated for the Reclamation Safety of 
Dams Act of 1978 by $540 million (excluding adjustments for 
inflation).
    Under current law, $105 million remains to be appropriated 
of the program authorization level. The current ceiling on 
amounts authorized to be appropriated for this program is about 
$1 billion, including adjustments for inflation. The Bureau of 
Reclamation estimates that its plan to upgrade dams will use 
this remaining authorization level by fiscal year 2006 to fund 
ongoing and future projects.
    For this estimate, CBO assumes that H.R. 4893 will be 
enacted near the start of 2005. Including adjustments for 
anticipated inflation, CBO estimates that the authorization 
ceiling for the program would increase by $600 million. CBO 
expects that the additional authorization level under the bill 
would be needed starting in fiscal year 2007 and would fund 
projects through 2015. Based on information from the bureau, 
CBO estimates that implementing this bill would cost $135 
million over the 2005-2009 period and $465 million after that 
period (including costs to cover anticipated inflation).
    Intergovernmental and private-sector impact: H.R. 4893 
contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as 
defined in UMRA and would impose no costs on state, local, or 
tribal governments. Any costs incurred by state or local 
governments to match or reimburse the federal funds authorized 
by this legislation result from participating in a voluntary 
federal program.
    Previous CBO estimate: On June 23, 2003, CBO transmitted a 
cost estimate for S. 1727 as ordered reported by the Senate 
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on June 16, 2004. The 
two versions of the legislation are identical, and our cost 
estimates are the same.
    Estimate prepared by: Federal Costs: Julie Middleton. 
Impact on State, Local, and Tribal Governments: Marjorie 
Miller. Impact on the Private Sector: Jean Talarico.
    Estimate approved by: Peter H. Fontaine, Deputy Assistant 
Director for Budget Analysis.

                    Compliance With Public Law 104-4

    This bill contains no unfunded mandates.

                Preemption of State, Local or Tribal Law

    This bill is not intended to preempt any State, local or 
tribal law.

         Changes in Existing Law Made by the Bill, as Reported

  In compliance with clause 3(e) of rule XIII of the Rules of 
the House of Representatives, changes in existing law made by 
the bill, as reported, are shown as follows (existing law 
proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets, new 
matter is printed in italic, existing law in which no change is 
proposed is shown in roman):

RECLAMATION SAFETY OF DAMS ACT OF 1978

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  Sec. 4. (a) * * *

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

  [(c) With respect to the additional $650,000,000 authorized 
to be appropriated in The Reclamation Safety of Dams Act 
Amendments of 1984, and the additional $95,000,000 further 
authorized to be appropriated by amendments to that Act in 
2000, and the additional $32,000,000 further authorized to be 
appropriated by amendments to the Act in 2001]
  (c) Reimbursement of Certain Modification Costs.--With 
respect to the additional amounts authorized to be appropriated 
by section 5, costs incurred in the modification of structures 
under this Act, the cause of which results from new hydrologic 
or seismic data or changes in state-of-the-art criteria deemed 
necessary for safety purposes, shall be reimbursed to the 
extent provided in this subsection.

           *       *       *       *       *       *       *

  (e)(1) During the construction of the modification, the 
Secretary shall consider cost containment measures recommended 
by a project beneficiary that has elected to consult with the 
Bureau of Reclamation on a modification.
  (2) The Secretary shall provide to project beneficiaries on a 
periodic basis notice regarding the costs and status of the 
modification.
  Sec. 5. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated for 
fiscal year 1979 and ensuing fiscal years such sums as may be 
necessary and, effective October 1, 1983, not to exceed an 
additional $650,000,000 (October 1, 1983, price levels), and, 
effective October 1, 2000, not to exceed an additional 
$95,000,000 (October 1, 2000, price levels), and, effective 
October 1, 2001, not to exceed an additional $32,000,000 
(October 1, 2001, price levels), and, effective October 1, 
2003, not to exceed an additional $540,000,000 (October 1, 
2003, price levels), plus or minus such amounts, if any, as may 
be justified by reason of ordinary fluctuations in construction 
costs as indicated by engineering cost indexes applicable to 
the types of construction involved herein, to carry out the 
provisions of this Act to remain available until expended if so 
provided by the appropriations Act: Provided, That no funds 
exceeding [$750,000] $1,250,000 (October 1, 2003, price 
levels), as adjusted to reflect any ordinary fluctuations in 
construction costs indicated by applicable engineering cost 
indexes, shall be obligated for carrying out actual 
construction to modify an existing dam under authority of this 
Act prior to 30 calendar days from the date that the Secretary 
has transmitted a report on such existing dam to the Congress. 
The report required to be submitted by this section will 
consist of a finding by the Secretary of the Interior to the 
effect that modifications are required to be made to insure the 
safety of an existing dam. Such finding shall be accompanied by 
a technical report containing information on the need for 
structural modification, the corrective action deemed to be 
required, alternative solutions to structural modification that 
were considered, the estimated cost of needed modifications, 
and environmental impacts if any resulting from the 
implementation of the recommended plan of modification.
  Sec. 5A. (a) On identifying a Bureau of Reclamation facility 
for modification, the Secretary shall provide to the project 
beneficiaries written notice--
          (1) describing the need for the modification and the 
        process for identifying and implementing the 
        modification; and
          (2) summarizing the administrative and legal 
        requirements relating to the modification.
  (b) The Secretary shall--
          (1) provide project beneficiaries an opportunity to 
        consult with the Bureau of Reclamation on the planning, 
        design, and construction of the proposed modification; 
        and
          (2) in consultation with project beneficiaries, 
        develop and provide timeframes for the consultation 
        described in paragraph (1).
  (c)(1) Prior to submitting the reports required under section 
5, the Secretary shall consider any alternative submitted in 
writing, in accordance with the timeframes established under 
subsection (b), by a project beneficiary that has elected to 
consult with the Bureau of Reclamation on a modification.
  (2) The Secretary shall provide to the project beneficiary a 
timely written response describing proposed actions, if any, to 
address the recommendation.
  (3) The response of the Secretary shall be included in the 
reports required by section 5.
  (d) The Secretary may waive 1 or more of the requirements of 
subsections (a), (b), and (c), if the Secretary determines that 
implementation of the requirement could have an adverse impact 
on dam safety or security.

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