and that statements filed by August 26 will be considered for inclusion in the printed record.

They have also been assured that statements received after that date will be made available to committee members promptly after their receipt for appropriate consideration. I expect to discuss with Senator Kerr and others further procedures for consideration of the bills before us.

Senator Gale McGee of Wyoming, who was a member of the Senate Select Committee on Water Resources, is here. Senator McGee has agreed to chair an Appropriations Subcommittee hearing at 10:30 a.m. for Senator Carl Hayden. I am going to call on him to be our next witness so he can get away, and then recognize other members of our two committees for any statement they may care to make. Senator McGee.

STATEMENT OF HON. GALE MCGEE, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF WYOMING

Senator MCGEE. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, and members of the committee, for permitting me to make a statement this morning.

The purpose of this statement is to support S. 2246, the Water Resources Planning Act of 1961 which you, Mr. Chairman, have introduced in furtherance of the proposal in President Kennedy's letter of July 13, 1961, to the President of the Senate.

The President's letter and the legislative proposal which he has offered, are striking and timely recognition of the seriousness of the need for an immediate start on the program of water resource development which was outlined in the report of the Senate Select Committee on National Water Resources. The Senate select committee opened this question widely with the initiative and the foresight of the senior Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Kerr, chairman of the Select Committee on National Water Resources, the chairman of the committee, Mr. Anderson, and the President of the United States, representing, in my judgment, a three-pronged assault on this question. They recognized that not only is it the task of water resource development in itself, but that it makes a critical difference in the achievement of that task how it is undertaken.

Certainly, the first step toward insuring that the progress which we need is forthcoming is the preparation of the sound, basic comprehensive water resource plans, which this bill will encourage and help to make possible.

The President quite correctly states in his letter, referred to above: Maximum beneficial use of water rests upon comprehensive and coordinated planning by both Federal agencies and States. This draft legislation will encourage and make possible such planning.

I have often urged before, and I should like to urge once again on this occasion, that the ability of America to face up to the twofold challenge of communism on the one hand, and of worldwide revolution on the other-and these challenges should not be assumed to be identical in every case-depends upon the adequacy of our economy to provide the tax dollars to support the vast public programs in foreign aid, in defense and in the building of our own society which alone will do the job. The ability of our economy to support

these programs is based squarely upon the extent to which we conserve and develop our natural resources, and the most indispensable of these resources, of course, is water.

If the results of the water committee study could be stated in one sentence, I think it would be this: Unless we do this job of water resource planning development and construction, we will have placed a limit upon our own capacity to grow, which is many times more suffocating and restricting than any limit which could be imposed by the forces of communism and world revolution.

I have stressed and restressed since my first address to the Senate early in 1959, 211⁄2 years ago, that the understanding of this vital relationship constitutes the real key to the future toward which the American people and free peoples everywhere are striving.

We have heard much talk in the last few weeks which seems to indicate that the only way to make an adequate defense effort in response to the Berlin crisis, for example, was to abandon just such domestic programs as resource development, so that we could concentrate on the production of arms and the training of armies.

I submit that the question is not essentially whether we can produce enough weapons; it is whether the economic and political institutions which we have created, can find within themselves the vitality and the resurgent strength which will give us, as Americans, the confidence to meet the challenge which our own economic development contains, particularly in a time of destructive external peril. This is a challenge which requires judgment, will, and, perhaps more than anything else, nerve. I have illustrated the nature of this relationship before by citing the testimony before the water resources committee of the county assessor of Carbon County in my own State of Wyoming,

This particular testimony shows in hearings that we held in Laramie, and presided over by the senior Senator from Oklahoma, the dramatic effect which individual water resource development projects can have in enabling the economy of Carbon County to support more people at an adequate standard of living, and thus broaden the economic base in this county to increase its own tax roles for the development of that county. This then redounds to the benefit of achieving public goals that represent the public interest. This example, a specific case, multiplied many times over throughout the Nation, will also make it possible for the United States to better achieve its own national goals.

The legislation before us is also wise because it provides for the joining of national local interest. The proposed Water Resources Council, will supply the overall national perspective, while the river basin commissions will assure the close identification of the program with local concern and experience. It is particularly significant that this bill would make available funds to the States to help finance programs of water resources planning to be undertaken and administered, in coordination with the Federal and State agencies having responsibilities in this field, by the States themselves through their own administrative agencies.

May I add there that one of the things that came home to us again and again in the hearings in the various sections of the country was the importance attached by most of those testifying to the peculiarities

of local problems, and local aspects of the problem and local voices in the problem.

This is the type of program which, because it provides both for the recognition of the States' traditional role in the development of their water resources and of the urgent necessity that the States act, will work in the long run. As a matter of fact, in recent weeks representatives of the Wyoming Natural Resources Board have visited my office in order to obtain my assistance in making effective contact with the Department of the Interior so that Wyoming could begin as soon as possible to develop comprehensive programs of water resource development planning.

We who live in the Western States have been conditioned by our history to understand the important role which water resource development must play in the efforts of society to reach common economic goals. This interest on the part of the State of Wyoming demonstrates this understanding, but even more it demonstrates our understanding of the fact that because of the West's vast untapped reserves—both of minerals and space-the West will be called upon to contribute more proportionately to the achievement of America's goal than will the other sections of the country. The West is ready, I am confident, to undertake this responsibility.

The Bureau of Reclamation reported to the Water Resources Com

mittee that

the amount of physically feasible water resource development remaining in the 17 reclamation States is enormous

contrary to the popular conception that they are running out of feasible and constructive opportunities.

According to that report, there are more than 1,000 reclamation projects, both public and private, upon which construction has not yet been undertaken, but which can be put into operation before the end of the century.

It is still a fact that three-quarters of the water in our western rivers flows unappropriated into the ocean. It is natural then that with the enormity of the task before us, and with the West's natural perception of the role which it must and can play in future water resource development, there is a profound sense of urgency on the part of the citizens of our Western States to get on with the job.

It is significant that this sense of urgency was repeated time and time again in the hearings which our Water Committee held throughout the Western States. Perhaps even more significant than this fact, however, is that this same intense appeal was echoed in every State we visited in whatever section of the country it happened to be.

The enactment of this legislation will be a major step forward, but it in no sense diminishes the desirability of its early enactment to remind the committee that there is another measure pending before it which is especially essential. I refer to S. 239, the proposed Resources and Conservation Act. President Kennedy's proposed Water Resources Planning Act is an important step forward in one large area of natural resource development. Such a step forward in the field of water resources both confirms and underscores the necessity for a comparable advance with respect to all of our other resources as well.

A sound, vigorous, and productive national economy depends on the availability of enough water of acceptable quality, but it also de

pends on and is inextricably intertwined also with the development of forest, mineral, recreational, soil and other natural resources.

It is my conviction that until we are moving forward across the entire natural resources front, we will be leaving a large part of the task undone, and we will be limiting the effectiveness of what we do with respect to water resources.

In conclusion then, in urging that S. 2246 be enacted, I am also putting in my plug for S. 239 as an additional, and supporting, and complementing enactment because I believe this is the way to equip the Nation for action on the truly comprehensive resources development programs which constitute the irreducible minimum of national effort necessary to our survival and to the survival of the ideals to which we are dedicated in this perilous and contending era.

I want to thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the committee for affording me the time.

Senator ANDERSON. I do not imagine we have questions. I see the junior Senator from Oklahoma, Mr. Monroney here, and if he has a statement here I want to recognize him after Senator Gruening.

Senator GRUENING. I think we ought to exercise some thought on the Senator's statement that the more that is put upon us abroad, the more necessary it is to develop our own resources.

Senator ANDERSON. We have had some very fine statements from Senator McGee and we appreciate his coming.

Senator MCGEE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator ANDERSON. Senator Gruening.

STATEMENT OF HON. ERNEST GRUENING, A U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF ALASKA

Senator GRUENING. Mr. Chairman, as cosponsor of S. 1629, the bill introduced earlier this session by the distinguished chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs to provide Federal assistance to the States for water resource planning, I thank this committee for this opportunity to appear today to urge enactment of S. 2246 and point out the special reasons it is important to Alaska. First, I would congratulate the distinguished chairman of this committee for the wisdom and foresight he has demonstrated in introducing legislation to encourage comprehensive development of our national water resources and working for the enactment of this legislation.

The provision of Federal assistance to the States for planning the use of their water resources can be exceptionally significant to the welfare of the Nation. It is clear that this is a very important matter to all parts of the country and an area in which additional Federal assistance can make a most useful contribution.

As pointed out by Sentor Anderson when S. 1629 was introduced, Federal assistance is needed by the States to adjust the imbalance which now exists as between the resources of the States and the resources of the Federal Government in planning the utilization of waters which are of joint concern to both. While it is of continuing importance that the great Federal programs affecting utilization of water resources be not diminished, it is also necessary to recognize the proper interests of the States. It is apparent that the States

require assistance of the kind provided by title III of S. 2246 if they are to give effective voice to their concerns.

The great lakes and rivers of Alaska-the Yukon, the Kuskokwim, the Copper, the Tanana, and all the rest-may one day exist as the most important water resources of the Nation. With the inexorable increase in world population-with the irresistible westward movement of our own citizens—the resources of Alaska will be increasingly important to the free world.

It is of primary importance that the use of the magnificent water resources of Alaska-now largely untouched-be carefully planned for the benefit of all our people.

It is necessary to begin this planning now.

And it is necessary that the people of Alaska, the State affected, be given the opportunity they deserve to participate in the plans that are about to be made.

It must be remembered that my State is still a very new one, and that the Federal Government still owns almost 100 percent of it. We are slowly selecting the 103 million acres about 27 percent of the land area, which is our right under our statehood act. It will be many years before Alaska enjoys the full rights of political independence which will come with ownership of our own land.

This fact of omnipresent Federal control of the land-thus, to a large extent, of our waters-makes it more important to Alaska than to other States to have a voice in planning the utilization of our

resources.

The report of the Select Committee on National Water Resources of the Senate on Water Resources of Alaska (Committee Print No. 19 of the 86th Cong.) aptly stated that

the most significant conclusion that can be drawn ** * is that we know very little indeed of the extent and magnitude of the magnificent water and water related resources of Alaska.

Thus, in planning the use of our resources, it will first be necessary to intensify the kind of studies which have been undertaken in the past by such agencies as the Geological Survey, the Corps of Engineers, and the Bureau of Reclamation to inventory and classify our bodies of water.

From what is known, certain things are clear with respect to the most important uses of our rivers and lakes and the oceans along our

shores.

First, the tremendous hydroelectric power potential of Alaska represents one of the greatest resources of the free world for peacetime and defense production. At Rampart Canyon on the Yukon the Corps of Engineers is even now studying the feasibility of constructing a mighty hydroelectric power dam which would produce more power than all the hydroelectric power installations of TVA combined and more than twice as much power as Grand Coulee. It would establish a reservoir greater in area than Lake Erie and would raise the temperature of central Alaska. The potentials of this great project-not only for the provision of cheap electricity but as a fishery resource excite the imagination.

Already, questions have arisen as to the contribution of the State of Alaska to planning and operating this great project. The State of Alaska is vitally concerned with plans for marketing the power

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