84TH CONGRESS 1st Session

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SENATE

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REPORT No. 1155

LIMITING THE AMOUNT OF LAND ON FEDERAL IRRIGATION PROJECTS WHICH MAY BE EXCHANGED UNDER THE ACT OF AUGUST 13, 1953

JULY 27, 1955.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. ANDERSON, from the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany S. 1818]

The Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (S. 1818) to limit the amount of land on Federal irrigation projects which may be exchanged under the act of August 13, 1953, having considered the same, report favorably thereon with amendments, and with the recommendation that the bill, as amended, do pass.

AMENDMENTS

On page 1, line 9, strike out the figure "25" and insert in lieu thereof the figure "35".

The above amendment is for the purpose of increasing the percentage of public land farm units available to veterans from other reclamation projects where uneconomic units have been assigned to veterans as settlers.

On page 2, line 7, strike out the word "Act.", and insert in lieu thereof "Act:" and add the following proviso:

Provided, That there shall be excluded from the limitation in this section, the acreage required for amending the size of existing farm units.

This amendment is for the purpose of insuring the ability to increase the acreage of an existing farm unit to bring it to an economic level, and to remove any restriction on the establishment of an economic farm unit by reason of the classes of land in an inadequate unit.

PURPOSE OF THE BILL

The purpose of S. 1818 is to correct situations with respect to public land areas of Federal reclamation projects which have resulted since the passage of the act of August 13, 1953. This act provided that a veteran settler on an unpatented farm unit on a Federal reclamation

project may exchange that unit for another on the same or another Federal project provided the Secretary of the Interior, as a result of a land classification, finds the farm unit insufficient to support a family. The committee, together with the sponsors of S. 1818, find the 1953 act is a worthy endeavor to assure any veteran that the farm on which he has settled is an economic unit. No departure from its objectives is countenanced. However, the practical results of the 1953 act are that on some reclamation projects every farm unit opened for settlement is claimed by a settler who had previously acquired a unit on another project.

For example, on one project there will soon be available 42 new farm units. There are currently pending over 60 applications for these units filed by settlers on other projects who desire to transfer under the provisions of the act of August 13, 1953. At the same time more than 4,000 applications have been received from eligible veterans residing throughout the United States who ask only that they have a chance in a lottery to acquire these farms.

The committee finds that it should be possible for veteran applicants for new farms to have an opportunity to acquire units on projects where openings are planned. Only by limiting the amount of land available for exchange under the 1953 act can this result be achieved.

In a hearing before the Subcommittee on Irrigation and Reclamation spokesmen for the Bureau of Reclamation stated that enactment of S. 1818 would not deny settlers on uneconomic farm units an opportunity to make exchange for economical farms on the same project or elsewhere. S. 1818 simply would require that the opportunities to which settlers are entitled shall be distributed among all Federal reclamation projects on which new farm openings are planned. It would also give some opportunity to thousands of veterans who desire to establish farm homes on Federal irrigation projects a chance to do so.

The increase from 25 to 35 percent in the number of acres to be available for exchange on any project is recommended to remove any doubt as to whether there will be sufficient units available to make exchanges authorized by the 1953 act.

The exclusion from the percentage limitation of acreage required to amend an existing farm unit is recommended by the Bureau of Reclamation to insure its ability to increase the size of an existing unit to bring it to an economic level. The committee agrees that no restriction should be placed in the way of creating an economical unit from an inadequate one due to soil classification errors or other factors.

REPORTS OF EXECUTIVE AGENCIES

The reports of the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of the Budget on S. 1818 are as follows:

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, Washington 25, D. C., June 30, 1955.

Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY,

Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs,

United States Senate, Washington 25, D. C.

MY DEAR SENATOR MURRAY: A report has been requested from this Department on S 1818, a bill to limit the amount of land on Federal irrigation projects which may be exchanged under the act of August 13, 1953.

This bill, if enacted, would limit the portion of the irrigable acreage of lands available for settlement on Federal irrigation projects that may be taken up by exchange or amendment of farm units under the act of August 13, 1953 (67 Stat. 566) to 25 percent.

The successful establishment of settlers on a reclamation project is based on the expectation that the farm units offered will possess such productive capacity that, with reasonable effort, the average settler can achieve a state of economic sufficiency for himself and his family. It has long been recognized that situations occasionally arise where, through no fault of the settler and as the result of conditions which cannot be foreseen and compensated for in the preentry layout of farm units, the land in any given unit may prove incapable of yielding the anticipated objective. Section 4, subsection M, of the act of December 5, 1924 (43 Stat. 672, 703, 43 U. S. C. 438), and section 44 of the act of May 25, 1926 (44 Stat. 636, 648, 43 U. S. C. 423c) made limited provisions for rectifying such situations.

From the close of World War II through July of 1953, 35 public notices and announcements offered 1,449 farm units for settlement. In response thereto, 59,194 applications were received from prospective settlers. This avalanche of applicants was in marked contrast to the comparatively limited response that prevailed in prewar land openings. Eligible settlers seeking exchange farm units under then effective legislation had, before World War II, experienced no particular difficulty in obtaining lieu units. With the overwhelming increase in numbers of applicants for new lands after World War II the situation changed markedly. With but few exceptions unselected units seldom remained available for exchange

purposes.

In enacting the act of August 13, 1953, the Congress gave exchange applicants a preference over other applicants for new farm units. This legislation took cognizance of the plight of the settlers who had entered on or acquired lands from the Federal Government only to find that through no fault of their own the productivity of those lands had become critically impaired to a point of insufficiency. By establishing a priority for qualified exchange and amendment applicants over prospective new settlers, an opportunity was afforded to individuals of the former group to regain a state of economic sufficiency that would otherwise be unobtainable by them.

The enactment of the Exchange Act led to an initial plethora of applications for relief under its terms that is not expected to continue or to be repeated. A summary of the transactions that have occurred from the time of its enactment to May 4 of this year is shown in the following figures:

A. REQUESTS FOR DETERMINATION OF ELIGIBILITY FOR EXCHANGE OR

1 Completion contingent on relinquishment of original unit and upon availability of land for exchange or amendment.

S. 1818, if enacted, would impose a serious limitation on the ability of this Department to complete within a reasonable time the exchanges and amendments for which applications have been made and found qualified under the act of August 13, 1953. There is no direct relationship between the proposed limitation and the number of actions required under present law. There is a definite probability that the proposed limitation would prematurely exhaust the acreage required for exchange purposes on any given project Moreover, section 6 of the act of August 13, 1953, provides that for purposes of the act an amendment shall be considered an exchange. It follows that upon exhaustion of the allocated project acreage, not only would qualified applicants seeking lieu units be barred but future amendments that might be necessary for settlers resident on a project would also be precluded even though suitable lands existed for this purpose.

In consideration of the foregoing, we would not favor the enactment of S. 1818 in its present form. If the application of the relief measures provided under the act of August 13, 1953, were to be made more restrictive certain minimum modifications of S. 1818 would, in our judgment, be essential:

1. The limitation should be applicable only to lands that become available for settlement subsequent to the enactment of this proposed legislation and should be applied to each group of lands as formally declared available for settlement.

2. The limitation ought not to be inclusive of the acreage required for amendments to existing farm units

The Bureau of the Budget has advised that there would be no objection to the submission of this report to your committee. Sincerely yours,

FRED G. AANDAHL, Assistant Secretary of the Interior.

EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT,

BUREAU OF THE BUDGET, Washington 25, D. C., June 29, 1955.

Hon. JAMES E. MURRAY,

Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs,

United States Senate, Washington 25, D. C.

MY DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: This will acknowledge your request of April 28, 1955, for the views of this Bureau on S. 1818, a bill to limit the amount of land on Federal irrigation projects which may be exchanged under the act of August 13, 1953.

The act of August 13, 1953, provided for exchanges, amendments, and enlargements of farm units on Federal reclamation projects in cases where the original entry, pursuant to a land classification, was found to be insufficient to support a family, and established the conditions under which such exchanges may be made. This act gave applicants for exchanges a preference over other applicants for new farm units opened for homestead entry. S. 1818, if enacted, would amend the act of August 13, 1953, by inserting a new section that would limit acquisitions by exchanges of farm units to 25 percent of the total irrigable land acquired by the United States on any Federal irrigation project open to entry.

The Department of the Interior advises that since passage of the act of August 13, 1953, some 386 applicants in the Riverton and Shoshone projects, Wyoming, and the Sun River project, Montana, as of May 4, 1955, have been found eligible for exchanges or amendments and that actions have been completed for 203 applicants. If S. 1818 is enacted in its present form it would be difficult to carry out, within a reasonable length of time, action on the remaining 183 applications.

Accordingly, the Bureau of the Budget believes that, in view of the preferences granted under the act of August 13, 1953, and current actions underway, consideration should be given to amending S. 1818 to (1) make the limitation applicable only to lands that become available for proposed settlement subsequent to passage of the bill and (2) excluding from the limitation the acreage required for amending the size of existing farms to accomplish economical units.

Sincerely yours,

DONALD R. BELCHER, Assistant Director.