457 



intaiiirible benefits. These should receive more emphasis in Federal 

 phinning of water projects. Techniques should be desio-ned to measure 

 such benefits, so that they could become better understood and appre- 

 ciated. However, said the report : 



The committee is not overly concerned with the cost sharing aspect of onr 

 water resources problems, because it believes that the present policies tend to 

 even out the sharing of costs over the long run, among all the people.^ 



IV. Impact of the Select Committee's Report 



From the standpoint of political impact, the report of tlie Select 

 Committee on National Water Resources was elfectively timed. Advo- 

 cating an active program of stewardship of national resources in a 

 changing world, the report appeared 10 days after the accession to 

 office of a newly elected Presirlent who had campaigned on an activist 

 platform. Understandably, President Kennedy soon endorsed the find- 

 ings of the report. In a special message to the Congress on Natural 

 Resources, February 23, 1961, he praised the ''very excellent and timely 

 report of the bipartisan Senate Select Committee on National "Water 

 Resources issued 3 weeks ago."' He urged the Congress to authorize 

 the establishment of river basin commissions, promised a "progressive, 

 orderly program of starting new projects to meet accumulated de- 

 mands,'' declared that increased attention should be given to municipal 

 and industrial water and power supplies, and identified the need for 

 stepped-up efl'orts in pollution control, saline water conversion, and 

 development of water-related recreation.^*^ 



Later the President followed this statement with a letter to rlie 

 President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House, transmitting 

 a water resources planning bill that would — 



Establish a Water Resources Coimcil (composed of the Secre- 

 taries of tlie Interior, Agriculture, Army, and Health, Education, 

 and Welfare), whose first task would be to "establish * * * stand- 

 ards for formulating and evaluating water resources projects;'' 

 Authorize regional or river basin commissions to prepare and 

 keep up-to-date plans for development of water and related land 

 resources ; 



Provide for grants to the States for water development planning 

 purposes. 

 "\'\"lien delays developed in the enactment of the requested legislation, 

 the President sent memoranda individually to tlie proposed members 

 of the recommended Water Resources Council, October 6, 1961, asking 

 them to ''review existing standards for the formulation and evaluation 

 of water resources projects and to recommend any necessaiT changes." 

 In response, the ad hoc Water Resources Council drafted a statement, 

 "Policies, Standards, and Procedures in the Formulation, Evaluation, 

 and Review of Plans for Use and Development of Water and Related 

 Land Resources,'' May 15, 1062.^^ This report the President promptly 



^"^ Ibifl.. pp. 22-23. 



^ U.S. Prpsicient f.Tolin F. Kpnnert.v). Speoip.l Mpssage to the Congress on Xatnral 

 Eesmirff"!. Febninry 2.". lOfil. In Piihlie Pnppr<i of the Presirlpnts, .Tnhn F Kennedy, 

 1901. (Washington. U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962), pp. 114-llS : 120-121. 



=" U.S. Congress. Senate. Policies. Standards, on Procedures in the Foi-mulation. Evalu- 

 ation, and Review of Plans for Use and Development of Water and Related Land Re- 

 sources. Prepared under the direction of the President's Water Resources Council. 

 Together with a statement by Senator Clinton P. Anderson of Xew ]Mexico. 9Tth Cong., 

 2d sess., S. Doc. 97. (Washington, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1962), 13 pp. 



