Authorizing Early Repayment of Construction Cost to Bureau of Reclamation

Floor Speech

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Mr. SMITH of Nebraska. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Natural Resources Committee for moving this bill and also to the gentleman from Montana for his remarks.

Under Federal reclamation law, irrigation districts which receive water from a Bureau of Reclamation facility must repay their portion of the capital costs of the water project, typically under long-term contracts.

I introduced this bill to provide members of the Northport Irrigation District early repayment authority under their dated reclamation contract. The contract in question is more than 60 years old and continues to subject landowners to burdensome reporting requirements and acreage limitations without generating revenue to the Federal Government.

Allowing producers within the district to pay off their portion of the contract means the government will receive funds perhaps otherwise uncollected and the landowners will be relieved of costly constraints which threaten family-owned operations.

For example, at a Natural Resources Water and Power Subcommittee hearing earlier this year, one member of the irrigation district testified the acreage limitation will prohibit parents who own land in the district from passing down or selling farmland to sons and daughters who also own land in the same district.

As Mr. Daines mentioned, similar legislation has passed under bipartisan majorities and, according to the CBO, could generate as much as $440,000 in Federal revenue.

This is a straightforward bill which would make a big difference to some family farmers in Nebraska.

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