1946 deficiency bill appropriations and the new appropriation bill for 1947.

Work has already been initiated this year on program projects. That is the most encouraging news ever to come to our valley in the memory of those who have faced and fought floods, year after year, in the lower basin; or struggled to survive through years of drought in the upper basin. Yet, we know it is only a start. We know that the intended benefits cannot be realized until the program is well advanced. This is not a piecemeal plan. It must be accomplished in orderly and continuing progression.

I am a member of the engineering profession; my training and my years of experience have taught me that in executing any long-range program, there must be a continuity of well-planned work ahead at all times. Efficient and economical engineering and construction require advance scheduling, and uninterrupted schedules. And, let me add, that the people of the Missouri Valley have an urgent-a very urgentneed for the earliest possible relief from floods and drought that the rapid completion of the basin program will afford.

That, gentleman, is why I am here today-to petition and urge the authorization of the projects recommended by the Army engineers. I heard General Pick's statement before this committee yesterday. I heard him recommend $300,000,000 in authorizations for the basin. program. As an engineer, I recognize and support the soundness of that recommendation, and the need for assurance of continuing efficient and economical work and planning. No engineer, responsible for such a vast program, could do less, knowing that a considerable period of time must elapse before another authorization bill is considered.

As a citizen of the Missouri Valley and as an official of the city of Omaha, I respectfully urge your favorable consideration of the projects and amounts recommended for authorization by General Pick. The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Warne, will you please give us your name and your official position with your qualifications and background?

STATEMENT OF WILLIAM E. WARNE, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER OF THE BUREAU OF RECLAMATION, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Mr. WARNE. Mr. Chairman, my name is William E. Warne. I am Assistant Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, and have been for some 3 years. I have worked in the Bureau of Reclamation 11 years. My work has largely been devoted to working on and with the planning of future development of water and related resources in the West as these come under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Reclamation.

The CHAIRMAN. Who is the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation?

Mr. WARNE. Mr. M. W. Strauss.

The CHAIRMAN. Is he one of the coauthors of the Missouri River plan?

Mr. WARNE. I think you are referring to Mr. W. G. Sloan.

The CHAIRMAN. Did he succeed Mr. Sloan?

Mr. WARNE. Mr. Sloan is assistant regional director of the Bureau of Reclamation, Billings, Mont.

The CHAIRMAN. Under the adopted project in the Flood Control Act of 1944 there is an authorization for the works to be done by the Corps of Engineers and for the works to be done by the Bureau of Reclamation as set forth in the comprehensive plan, so far as the Bureau of Reclamation is concerned, in Senate Document 191, and so far as the Corps of Engineers in House Document No. 475 of the seventy-eighth Congress, and cooperation is provided for in Senate Document No. 247.

I will ask you if under the authorization of $200,000,000 how much has actually be appropriated?

Mr. WARNE. The first appropriation granted amounted to $3,200,000 in the fiscal year 1946 for the purpose of perfecting certain construction plans and conducting other work in connection with the initial phase of the development of the Missouri River Basin that has been entrusted to the Department of the Interior. The Deficiency bill which was enacted on December 28, 1945, contained an appropriation of $10,780,300 for the purpose of continuing the preliminary work and beginning construction on three projects or units of an over-all project and a transmission line; namely, the Kortes Dam on the North Platte River in Wyoming, the Boysen Dam on the Big Horn River, the Angostura project in South Dakota, and the transmission line from Williston, N. Dak., to the Garrison Dam site.

The program as adopted under these two appropriations brought plans into being for completion of three construction works, the economic and engineering work required before commencement of actual construction on additional 8 units involved in the initial stage of the plan, making in all a total of 11 units of the plan by the end of the fiscal year 1946.

Now bids have been taken and the contract probably will soon be awarded for the commencement of construction of the Kortes Dam, which will be the first work to be actually undertaken by the Bureau of Reclamation under the authorization given last year.

The CHAIRMAN. May I ask you to repeat what is the total amount of this $200,000,000 that has been actually appropriated?

Mr. WARNE. A total of $13,980,300 has actually been appropriated. The CHAIRMAN. Was that all carried in the deficiency bill? Mr. WARNE. No, sir; part of it was carried in the 1946 regular appropriation for the Interior Department.

The CHAIRMAN. How much?

Mr. WARNE. $3,200,000. The remainder was carried in the deficiency bill, which was the first deficiency bill of 1946.

The CHAIRMAN. That is the December deficiency bill?

Mr. WARNE. Yes, sir.

The CHAIRMAN. What is the total estimated cost of the projects approved in the 1944 act for construction by the Bureau of Reclamation in the Missouri River Basin?

Mr. WARNE. The total cost of the 90 units involved in Senate Document 191, which was the fundamental reclamation report to which General Pick referred earlier, amounted to approximately $1,500,000,000. I have here a table showing the present-day estimated construction cost of the units in the authorized initial stage, the amounts

appropriated to date, and the amounts recommended for appropriation for fiscal year 1947.

Bureau of Reclamation Schedule of construction program, fiscal years 1946 and 1947, Missouri River Basin

The CHAIRMAN. I will ask you to state to the committee whether it is necessary and whether or not you are requesting additional authorizations for the adopted projects in the Flood Control Act of 1944 so far as the Bureau of Reclamation is concerned?

Mr. WARNE. Mr. Chairman, it will be necessary to ask for additional authorization. We have not actually filed with your committee the formal requests for consideration of additional authorization.

The CHAIRMAN. Nor has anybody else. They give us the facts and figures and we reach our conclusions.

Mr. WARNE. It is necessary, before the initial stage that has been authorized in section 9 of the Flood Control Act, Public Law 534, can be completed, to increase the authorization of $200,000,000 for appropriation that was carried in that section.

The CHAIRMAN. In view of your statement I ask you this question: Is it the desire of the Bureau of Reclamation or the Department of the Interior that additional authorization be included in this bill, or

have you other plans? I am merely seeking information. Frankly, we have ample requests for all the authorizations that we can probably secure.

Mr. WARNE. There are no formulated different plans, Mr. Chairman, for the authorization. The question of the manner in which the authorization should be sought has not been formally resolved within the Department of the Interior.

The CHAIRMAN. If you desire, you may let us know when it has been formulated, because there will be no action until it is concluded. We are not volunteering any authorizations.

Mr. WARNE. I can readily understand your position and that of the committee in regard to that.

There follows a communication from the Secretary of the Interior relative to the need by the Department of the Interior for increased authorizations for appropriations for work in the Missouri Basin.

Hon. WILLIAM M. WHITTINGTON,

House of Representatives.

APRIL 23, 1946.

DEAR MR. WHITTINGTON: When Assistant Commissioner William E. Warne, of the Bureau of Reclamation, appeared on April 11 before your Committee on Flood Control you asked regarding the need for increasing the authority for appropriations for work to be undertaken by the Secretary of the Interior under the coordinated plan of development in the Missouri River Basin.

The Congress, in section 9 (a) of the Flood Control Act of 1944 (58 Stat. 887), approved the general comprehensive plans for the development of the Missouri River Basin as set forth in House Document 475 and Senate Document 191, Seventy-eighth Congress, second session, as revised and coordinated by Senate Document 247, Seventy-eighth Congress, second session, and authorized the recommended initial stages of those plans. In section 9 (d) of the same act, the Congress authorized to be appropriated the sum of $200,000,000 for the partial accomplishment of the works to be undertaken under the plans by the Corps of Engineers. Similarly, in section 9 (e), the Congress authorized the appropriation of the sum of $200,000,000 for the partial accomplishment of the works to be undertaken in the initial stage by the Secretary of the Interior.

The sum of $200,000,000 will not be sufficient to meet the aggregate cost of the initial stage of the plan that is entrusted to my Department. The estimates of cost included in Senate Document 191, Seventy-eighth Congress, second session, indicate that the cost of constructing the initial stage to be undertaken by the Secretary of the Interior to be $451,483,900, based on price levels existing January 1, 1940. Rising prices and other costs of construction have increased this figure.

There is need also for continuing investigations to perfect the plans for future stages of the basin-wide development as was contemplated in the authorization act. The exact amount of work that will be required and the length of time that will elapse before the final chapter of the ultimate plan can be written is difficult to determine at this time. The initial documents presenting plans for the development of the Missouri Basin are founded on the principle that full development will take place in a series of stages which will effectuate a coordinated step-by-step development of the basin. Those successive stages will be presented to the Congress for consideration as dictated by the economic needs of the area and the Nation.

The present-day estimates of cost of the work that the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to undertake in connection with the initial stage of the approved comprehensive plan, giving due consideration to additional data obtained since the plan was authorized and to rising price levels, totals $686,489,000 made up as follows:

Bureau of Reclamation:

Construction of initial stage_

Planning future stages.

Other Department agencies_

Total

$618, 280, 000

10, 000, 000 58, 209, 000

686, 489, 000

As the Department progresses in its work and as price levels become stabilized the above estimates must necessarily be reviewed and adjusted.

Increased authorization of appropriations will be necessary. Appropriations of nearly $100,000,000 annually can be used effectively to carry the work of this Department forward in the Missouri River Basin. Units of the Missouri Basin project now being made ready for construction which will begin in the 1947 fiscal year will require to complete nearly $200,000,000. These units are about one-third of those authorized in the initial stage of construction.

When your committee considers recommending an increase in the authorization for appropriations to the Corps of Engineers, it would be highly desirable that the committee also consider recommending a commensurate increase in the authorization for appropriations to the Department of the Interior for construction in the Missouri River Basin.

Sincerely yours,

J. A. KRUG, Secretary of the Interior.

The CHAIRMAN. You may proceed, Mr. Warne.

Mr. WARNE. I would like to state for the information of your committee, which brought forth through the adoption of the Flood Control Act the first fully coordinated basin plan to be made effective in the Western part of the United States, that the Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of the Interior have been cooperating fully wtih the Corps of Engineers and the other interested agencies.

The CHAIRMAN. What other interested agencies have you in mind? Mr. WARNE. The Department of Agriculture particularly, and the Federal Power Commission.

Now, within the Department of the Interior there are eight agencies which have direct interest in the development of water and related resources of the Missouri River Basin. They include the Bureau of Reclamation, which is the dominant agency with regard to the developmental features of the plan in the Interior Department, the Grazing Service, the General Land Office, the National Parks Service, the Geological Survey, the Bureau of Mines, the Office of Indian Affairs, which has many matters of intimate relation to the plan, and the Fish and Wildlife Service, which has primary interest in the basin both in the work that we do and that the Corps does.

The CHAIRMAN. As I understand it, there is cooperation, correlation, and coordination in your department, and you are not duplicating the work of these other agencies; is that correct?

Mr. WARNE. That is correct. You can find the most concrete and ready example of that in the report to which General Crawford referred this morning, the report on the Heart River, N. Dak., project, House Document 294, in which the review by the Department of the Interior of the report resulted in the recommendation which was included in the report of the Corps of Engineers which guarantees fully coordinated plans for the Heart River development.

The CHAIRMAN. Generally, for the record, the works that are to be done in the Missouri River Basin by the Bureau of Reclamation, under the act of 1944, are in that part of the river and tributaries above Sioux City; is that correct?

Mr. WARNE. That is true if you will consider the upper reaches of the Platte.

The CHAIRMAN. The work that you are to do in the Missouri River Basin consists primarily of what?

Mr. WARNE. Primarily of irrigation and power.