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Show 243 Water-Conservation and Utilization Projects.-Under the heading "Bureau of Reclamation," the Interior Department Appropriation Act for 1940 contained a special provision for the construction of "water conservation and utilization proj- ects" in the Great Plains and arid and semiarid areas of the United States.648 An amount of $5,000,000 of reimbursable funds was made allocable by the President to federal agencies to be designated by him; labor and supplies from the Works Progress Administration were similarly made available, ex- penditures from WPA funds to be reimbursable as the Presi- dent might determine.549 This authorization arose from a need to provide assistance in rehabilitating people and land in the "dust bowl" and other arid and semiarid regions, and to stem the exodus of thousands of farm families, under conditions where the cost of irrigation works was too great to be financed by the water users, or to be fully repaid if undertaken by the United States.550 Such a combination of expenditures from relief and general funds was designed not only to provide unemployment relief, but also to offer opportunities for subsistence in the future.551 But complications soon arose.552 It was held that allocations for investigations and surveys could not be authorized.553 The Act was regarded as not furnishing a continuing legislative authorization.554 Moreover, it was deemed to require the Bureau of Reclamation to handle all of the project costs out 648 Act of May 10,1939, 53 Stat. 685, 719. 649 Id. 650 Hearings before a Subcommittee of the House Committee on Appro- priations, Interior Department Appropriation Bill for 1941, 76th Cong., 3d sess., pp. 523-524 (1940). 651 Id. p. 523. 662 Id. p. 525. 688 Decision of the Comptroller General, B-9240, May 2,1940. Cf. Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Appropriations on H. R. 8745, 76th Cong., 3d sess., pp. 75-76 (1940). 564 Hearings before a Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Com- mittee on Interior Department Appropriation Bill for 1942, 77th Cong., 1st sess., p. 780 (1941). |