OCR Text |
Show 474 1944.371 The approved plan became known as the "Pick- Sloan" plan.872 Additional stages of the Army plan were au- thorized in 1950.373 In addition, the Department of Agriculture has recently pre- pared and submitted to Congress a long-range program for land rehabilitation and use in the Missouri Basin covering conser- vation and improvement measures on grassland and cropland, forests and forest ranges, stabilizing measures for small water courses, irrigation, and drainage.374 This program the Depart- ment designed as "an integral part of the coordinated Missouri Basin development."375 During congressional consideration of plans for the Missouri Basin, proposals for a Missouri Valley Authority were also discussed. In transmitting the report of reconciliation to Con- gress, the President said that the revised reports of the Army Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation should be authorized "as a basic engineering plan to be developed and administered by a Missouri Valley Authority, such as I have already recom- mended in my message of September 21."376 The MVA pro- posals failed to receive committee approval, and an amend- ment from the floor to create an MVA was withdrawn after as- surances were given that hearings would be held early in the next Congress.377 871 Act of December 22,1944, § 9, 58 Stat. 887, 891. Appropriations for car- rying out the Department of the Interior's portion of this development are made to the Bureau of Reclamation under an express provision by which they may be expended "either independently or through or in cooperation with existing Federal and State agencies." See, e. g., Act of July 3, 1945, § 1, 59 Stat. 318, 343. m So named for Maj. Gen. Lewis A. Pick, then Colonel and Division En- gineer, Corps of Engineers, and W. G. Sloan, then Assistant Regional Direc- tor, Bureau of Reclamation. 378 Act of May 17,1950, § 204, 64 Stat. 163, -. 874 H. Doc. No. 373, 81st Cong., 1st sess., pp. 19-20 (1949). 875 Id. p. 29. 878 President's Message to President of the Senate, November 27, 1944, 90 Cong. Rec. 8479 (1944). 877 90 Cong. Rec. 8626-8628 (1944). In addition, Senator Hill, acting ma- jority leader (see id. p. 8629), said, "I understand the declaration of policy which was in the bill, which the author of the Missouri Valley Authority bill thought might be prejudicial to the M. V. A. bill, has now been stricken from the bill, and the provision in the bill creating the Missouri River |