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Show -80- NOT INTENDED TO BE PRECEDENT The physical and other conditions peculiar to the Republican River Basin constitute the basis of the currently proposed compact, which specifically provides that its general basis and conditions are not con- ceded by the States or by the United States to be a precedent with respect to any other interstate stream. ' : COMPACT FORMERLY-PROPOSED In order that the problems and difficulties involved in the nego- tiation of the currently proposed compact may be better understood, the legislative course of a former one is briefly reviewed herein. Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska, through duly designated commissioners, negotiated a compact for allocating the waters of the Republican Paver on March 19, 1941, and the three respective States ratified it shortly there- after by appropriate legislation. The States had not had prior congression- al consent to negotiate a compact and no representative of the United States participated in the negotiations* Identical bills seeking to give congressional consent to the compact formerly proposed were introduced in the Seventy-seventh Congress, as H» R. 4647, H« H. 5945, and S. 1361. . H. R. 5945 was reported favorably by ' the House Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation on November 5*. 1941 (H. Rept» No» 1360)^ including several interpretative amendments submitted by the Interior Department and the Federal Power Commission* Subsequently, S» I36I was reported favorably by the Senate Committee on Irrigation and Reclamation on November 213 I9I4.I (S. Rept. No* £1+1), without amendments. H» R» 59^5 weis passed by the House on December 1, 19^+1* as reported. That bill was brought up for consideration in the Senate and passed after amend- ments adopted by the House had. been stricken therefrom. Conferees re- ported favorably on the Senate version of the bill and their reports were accepted by the House and Senate, but it was "vetoed by the President, for reasons explained in his veto message cf April 2, I9I+2. The declaration" that the Republican River and its tributaries are not navigable, in article I of the compact formerly proposed, appears to have been -the primarjr basis of the veto. Quite understandably, that declaration was interpreted by the President and his advisers as an attempt "to with- draw -the jurisdiction of the United States over the waters of the Republican Basin for purposes of navigation." In the veto message, the President indi- cated approval^ in principle, of a suitable oompact for the apportionment of the waters of Republican River among the three States to permit irri- gation and related uses, and for joint Federal-State action in the ef- fective use of the water and for the control of destructive floods*. The act approved August U, 191*2 (56 Stat» 736) granted to the three States the consent of Congress to the negotiation of a new compact,, upon condition that the President appoint a person to participate in the nego- tiations as the representative of the United States and to make a report to Congress of the proceedings and of any compact entered into. The |