OCR Text |
Show responsibility for planning on such basin commis- sions as the Commission is recommending. It must be an organic process, not a form of revision. The existing procedure has resulted in the orig- inal Pick-Sloan Plan for the Missouri River and its later revisions. It is inadequate to produce a sound, integrated multiple-purpose program. Third, the procedure provides no method for bringing regional objectives into focus, and for comparing basin programs with each other in the light of national needs. Fourth, it does not provide a general picture of the state of our resources, or indicate all the measures needed to keep them producing at an adequate level. In spite of these deficiencies, the Bureau of the Budget has made a creditable effort to coordinate the program data submitted by the several agen- cies into a Water Resources Development Pro- gram set up on a running 6-year basis. This program is prepared as part of a general Federal Civil Public Works Expenditure Projection. It affords the Bureau of the Budget and the Presi- dent some perspective from which to determine the soundness of the appropriation requests of the construction and related agencies. The Bureau's analysis of agency programs shows expenditure projections separately for all agencies responsible in any way for public works or other water resources activities of the Govern- ment. These include the information-gathering agencies which provide much of the basic data required for sound planning. The Water Resources Development Program is subdivided to show the requirements of the several agencies in the Missouri, Columbia, and Central Valley basins, while other basins are lumped together as a group. Thus, under the leadership of the Bureau of the Budget, compre- hensive river basin investment programs have begun to take form. Coordination at Basin Level In the Tennessee Valley, the Tennessee Valley Authority is responsible for preparing complete, integrated plans for the development of the river, and stating the investments needed for that pur- pose. It is in close contact with the area, and its work is benefited by that fact. The agency pre- pares an annual budget, and appropriations are made directly to the TVA for all purposes in- cluded in its program. There have been several attempts to eliminate the inadequacies of existing agency procedure, without adopting the authority as the enabling device. There is, for instance, an unofficial interagency committee for the Missouri River Basin set up in an effort to provide for cooperation at the regional level. It is made up of representatives from the Departments of the Army, Agriculture, Com- merce, and Interior, the Federal Power Commis- sion, and the Federal Security Agency. Each of these officials presents the plans of his agency, and attempts are made to eliminate contradictions and reconcile differences. Then each official takes back the results of the conference to his own agency as a guide in preparing its program. The governors of the basin States participate in the meetings. The work of the committee is not official. It does not offer a method for formulating an in- tegrated program, or of presenting it to the public and to Congress. Appropriations are made to the several agencies for their specific functions quite apart from the committee's work. A similar interagency committee, functioning in the Columbia River Basin, has some real ac- complishments to its credit in the way of coor- dinated programing. It is constituted on the same basis as the Missouri committee. The cor- responding interagency committee for the Colo- rado River Basin is more limited in scope, being largely limited to technical studies. The President has recently set up an official Arkansas-Red-White River Basin Commission, where the procedure is somewhat different. Rep- resentatives appointed from the responsible agencies are charged with making a 2-year study of the needs of the basin and recommending a program to meet them. This program will be formulated as a single, integrated program, and the total program will be so presented. 89 |