OCR Text |
Show 514 the Great Plains and arid and semiarid areas of the United States.112 The authority of the Secretary of Agriculture to formulate and keep current a program of facilities for water storage or utilization is limited to the arid and semiarid areas of the United States.113 Surveys and plans by the Tennessee Valley Authority are authorized with respect to the natural re- sources of the "Tennessee River drainage basin and of such ad- joining territory as may be related to or materially affected by the development consequent" to the TVA Act.114 Likewise, the International Boundary and Water Commission is charged with certain planning for the lower Rio Grande and lower Colorado and Tijuana rivers.115 While limited as to area, each of these authorizations leaves to the agency a certain right to initiate investigations and sur- veys, and to that extent the development of programs. (Appropriations)-By the express terms of the Tennessee Valley Authority Act, surveys and plans may be made "within the limits of appropriations made therefor by Congress."116 The provision is clearly worded, but its practical effect is doubt- ful. As an organic limitation on the authority to expend money it cannot be self-executing, but necessarily depends on language of appropriation acts containing a limited amount for such activities. A review of appropriation acts of 1943-1948 reveals no such limitations. River and harbor appropriations acts are usually worded so that all funds appropriated thereby are available for examina- tions and surveys; the game result is accomplished by gen- eral legislation for flood-control appropriations.117 Annual ap- propriations for the Bureau of Reclamation, however, have contained specific amounts for general investigations.118 ""Act of October 14, 1940, § 1, 54 Stat. 1119, 16 U. S. 0. 590y. m Act of August 28,1937, §§ 1, 2, 50 Stat. 869,16 U. S. 0. 590r, 590s. 114 Act of May 18, 1933, § 22, 48 Stat. 58, 69, 16 U. S. C. 831u. While the power to initiate surveys and planning was placed in the President by statute, it was transferred to TVA. Ex. O. No. 6161, June 8,1933. 1M See Act of May 13, 1924, § 1, 43 Stat. 118, as amended, 22 U. S. 0. 277. 116 Act of May 18,1933, § 22, 48 Stat. 58, 69, 16 U. S. 0. 831u. 117 See, e. g., Act of June 30,1948, 62 Stat. 1148; Act of August 11,1939, § 2, 53 Stat. 1414, 33 U. S. C. 701b-3. m See, e. g., Act of September 6,1950, ch. VII, title I, 64 Stat. 595. |