OCR Text |
Show 519 over, all of the federal agencies concerned do evaluate such relative benefits and costs in considering projects.137 But what benefits and what costs are to be included and how they are to be measured are decisions which can and do vary substan- tially from agency to agency.138 For example, as to the interest rate employed for the conver- sion of nonuniform benefits to an equivalent average annual benefit, the Army Engineers employ the average rate of interest payable on money borrowed for long-term private investment in the locality concerned, generally 4 to 5 % .139 But the Depart- ment of Agriculture generally employs a 2% rate.140 And the Bureau of Reclamation a rate of 2y2 %.141 Similarly, as to the price level used in calculating benefits, the Army Engineers and the Department of Agriculture use the price level prevailing at the time of analysis.142 On the other hand, the Bureau of Reclamation employs its estimate of what average prices will be during the proposed project's life-as of May 1950, prices corresponding with the 1939-1944 period.143 Differences such as the foregoing are susceptible of resolu- tion by statutory prescription of a uniform standard or through administrative agreement. But the latter means cannot be employed to reconcile existing statutory differences in stand- ards for project selection. Outstanding in this respect is the fact that only in the case of Reclamation projects does there exist a statutory pay-out standard.144 No corresponding re- quirement obtains in the case of projects proposed for authori- 187 Pboposbd Practices foe Economic Analysis of River Basin Pbojects, prepared by the Subcommittee on Benefits and Costs, Federal Inter-Agency River Basin Committee, pp. 74-85 (May 1950). 188 Ibid. ™Id. p. 75. 140 Ibid. U1lbid. 142 Id. p. 74. 148 IMd. 144 However, apart from this standard, Congress has in individual cases authorized irrigation projects by special statutes. See, e. g., Bubeatj of Reclamation Project Feasibilities and Authorizations, Department of the Interior, pp. 123-124,141-142, 225, 290, 414, 537 (1949). |