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Show 211 tory or supplementary legislation.860 An example expressly in point is the Reclamation Project Act of 1939.351 Administrative Interpretation of Repayment Provisions.- In the course of recent congressional hearings, administrative interpretations of various aspects of repayment provisions of Reclamation Law were presented in a memorandum prepared by the Bureau's Chief Counsel.332 We shall summarize here portions of that memorandum to cast further light on adminis- trative views upon this somewhat complicated aspect of Recla- mation Law. In projects governed by the Omnibus Adjustment Act of 1926, an irrigation district must assume, prior to delivery of water, a repayment obligation in the amount of the " 'cost of constructing' " the project or division, which means the actual cost.363 Usually, however, the Bureau requires execution of contracts in advance of or concurrently with the commencement of construction.354 This necessitates amendatory repayment contracts as construction progresses where actual costs exceed the obligation assumed in prior contracts.355 In the case of contracts where the water users undertake to repay on completion the actual cost, but not in excess of a stated maximum, when the amount of expenditure equals or ex- ceeds the amount of the obligation assumed, the United States 850 See, e. g., Repayment of the Construction Costs of Federal and Indian Reclamation Pbojects, H. Doc. No. 673, 75th Cong., 3d sess. (1938). S5i "That for the purpose of providing for United States reclamation proj- ects a feasible and comprehensive plan for an economical and equitable treat- ment of repayment problems and for variable payments of construction charges which can be met regularly and fully from year to year during periods of decline in agricultural income and unsatisfactory conditions of agriculture as well as during periods of prosperity and good prices for agri- cultural products, and which will protect adequately the financial interest of the United States in said projects, obligations to pay construction charges may be revised or undertaken pursuant to the provisions of this Act." Act of August 4,1939, § 1, 53 Stat. 1187, 43 U. S. C. 485. 852 Hearings before a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appropria- tions on the Interior Department Appropriation Bill for 1949, 80th Cong., 2d sess., Part 3, pp. 871-887 (1948). ™Id. p. 876. 854 Id. p. 877. miua. |