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Show Appendix H CONFIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM DISTRIBUTED JULY 1955 TO PARTICIPANTS OF REPUBLICAN CAUCUS ON CRSP WITH THE STATEMENT THAT IT HAD COME FROM THE WHITE HOUSE The Colorade River Storage Project Bill The bill pending before the House is HR. 3383, which would authorize construction, planned over a twenty year period, of three storage dams and eleven irrigation developments in the Upper Basin of the Colorado River. In addition, it would conditionally authorize a fourth storage dam, subject to feasi- bility findings of the Secretary of the Interior. These storage dams are Glen Canyon, Flaming Gorge, Navajo, and Cure- canti. The total capacity of these four is slightly less than that of Glen Canyon and Echo Park, the two structures originally recommended by the administration. These projects are de- signed to make possible the conservation and use of water in arid regions of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico, now represented by five Republican and three Democrat senators; five Republican and four Democrat congressmen. Under the House bill the fund authorization is limited to $760 million. The President said in his Budget Message: "The Colorado River development will enable the Upper Basin states to conserve flood waters and to assure the avail- ability of water and power necessary for the economic growth of the region." In his State of the Union Message, he said: ". . . the Federal Government must shoulder its ... partnership obligations by undertaking projects of such com- plexity and size that their success requires federal develop- ment. In keeping with this principle I again urge the Congress to approve the development of the Upper Colorado River Basin to conserve and assure better use of precious water essential to the future of the West." |