Statement of U.S. Senator Thomas H. Kuchel

Document: Statement of Senator Thomas Kuchel on H.R. 3300, March 13, 1967, page 6-6- basic position. We supported this program then. We support it now. I am happy to say that these principles are supported in California, with complete unity, by Governor Reagan, Attorney General Lynch, the Colorado River Board of California, and the State's Director of Water Resources. I annex to my statement a telegram from Governor Reagan endorsing S. 861, as well as a resolution adopted by the Colorado River Board of California on March 1, 1967. We Californians are also united in opposing enactment of the bill which Secretary Udall has now proposed as a substitute for the plan which he helped formulate and which he so warmly endorsed last year. The Secretary's new proposal fails to protect any State other than Arizona. He abdicates his responsibility to deal with the most crucial issue, the Basin's water shortages, by investigating means to relieve them. He deletes the priority protection for existing projects. He gives up on Bridge Canyon, as well as Marble Canyon dams, sacrificing what he said last year would amount to more than $1 billion of earnings to help finance importations as well as the Central Arizona Project. Gone is the regional development fund. I well remember when Secretary Udall in January, 1965, led the way to an amicable agreement between Arizona and California. We agreed to help one without damaging the other. We agreed that the Central Arizona Project should be built and that prior use should be respected. But we did far more. WeEpson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 997,849 byte