Theodore
could take a bag of reports to each of six or eight different post offices every
day so we could get the reports mailed. Just another example of how
resourceful the staff was.
You talked about how the Senate at least, and I presume that some people in
the House too, reacted rather negatively to some of the recommendations. It
strikes me that maybe `73, `74 were not particularly good years for
commissions and studies. I'm referring to the fact that in `74, Congress, as I
understand it, tells the Water Resources Council that it's not doing a
particularly good job on principles and standards. I don't know whether you
can shed any light on this or not, or if it at all relates to the National Water
Commission Report, but as I mentioned earlier, in 1970 congressmen told the
Water Resources Council to come up with principles and standards based on the
four accounts, and then in 1974 Congress goes back and asked the Water
Resources Council in Section
of that act to basically take a new look at
the whole water resources field.
Was there a fair amount of disenchantment with the lack of emphasis in the
executive branch on regional development, on social well being-on these kinds
of things? Can you give me any background on any of this?
A: Well, I wouldn't put it that way. I think the real disenchantment was because
the project reports weren't flowing up to Congress the way they used to, with
an omnibus bill every two years. 1970 had been the last one, and there hadn't
been enough reports to even think about an omnibus bill in `72. As I recall, the
`74 act was really just basic authorizations and authorizing more studies. The
lack of new projects, I think, is what was disenchanting Congress, and the
agencies were saying that they couldn't get the reports out under the principles
and standards.
Also, NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] was in full effect by the
time, which put an added burden on the agencies to do environmental impact
statements, and there were lawsuits holding up projects. I think that's what
disenchanted Congress. And I'm sure that agency people, in talking to
Congress or talking to local interests, were saying, "We can't do this because
of NEPA; we can't do that because of the principles and standards." In my
opinion that's what disenchanted Congress.
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