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Show 310 INTERSTATE COMPACTS the other compact commissioners with whom you have occasion to collaborate in eliminating or correcting this area of possible conflict, will be appreciated. "Sincerely yours, "Harry S. Truman" "April 21, 1950 "Memorandum for the President: "Analysis of the enrolled enactment granting the consent and ap- proval of the Congress to the Snake River Compact, prior to your approval on March 21, 1950, (Public Law 464, 81st Congress, 2nd Session), revealed the possibility of misinterpretation of certain ap- parently conflicting provisions, which did not appear to be serious enough in this particular case to provide a sound basis for recommend- ing disapproval of the bill, but which, if followed as precedent for general application, might have far reaching effects upon the interests of the United States. The conflicts arise primarily between specific provisions imposing restrictions upon uses of water by the United States for power and other purposes, and the general savings clause in Article XIV. This article provides that nothing in the compact shall be deemed to impair or affect any rights or powers of the United States in and to the use of the waters of the Snake River nor its ca- pacity to acquire rights in and to the use of said waters. By reason of such conflicts, doubts may arise as to the extent of the control which the States concerned miay exercise over the rights, interests and struc- tures owned or built by the United States on the river. The resulting possibility or confusion thus tends to defeat one of the basic purposes of the compact, of settling the respective rights land interests of the Federal and State Governments in, over and to the river. "The Committee on Public Lands of the House of Representatives, in its report on the bill (S. 3159) recorded its interpretation of the term "beneficial uses" appearing in Article XIV-B, as not regarded by the Committee as including the use and control of water by the United States by reason of its power with respect to navigable waters under the commerce clause of the Constitution (H.R. Report No. 1743, 81st Congress, 2nd Session). It is also significant that the Con- gress saw fit to include in the enactment a provision (Section 2) ex- pressly preserving to the United States the right to alter, amend, and repeal the Act at any time. "Somewhat similar provisions appear in the proposed Cheyenne River Compact now pending before the Congress (H.R. 3336 and S. 1211) and in the Republican River Compact approved May 26, 1943, and the Belle Fourche River Basin Compact approved February 26, 1944. In approving each of these latter enactments, President Roose- velt issued a statement emphasizing that the procedure prescribed by the bill for exercise of the powers of the Federal Government, would not be entirely satisfactory in all circumstances and that these com- pacts should not serve as precedents, particularly for streams where there appears to be a possible need for Federal comprehensive mul- tiple purpose development or wThere opportunities for important elec- tric power projects are present. Likewise the Snake River Compact should not serve as a precedent. |