ect, issue two public notices relating to construction charges. The first public notice shall be issued when the land is ready for settlement and will announce the construction charge per irrigable acre. The second public notice shall be issued when in the opinion of the Secretary the agricultural development of the project shall have advanced sufficiently to warrant the commencement of payment of installments of such construction charge. The second public notice shall fix the date when payments will begin on the construction charge announced by the first public notice, which date shall be not more than five years from the date of the first public notice.

SUBSEC. F. That hereafter all project construction charges shall be made payable in annual installments based on the productive power of the land as provided in this subsection. The installment of the construction charge per irrigable acre payable each year shall be 5 per centum of the average gross annual acre income for the ten calendar years first preceding, or for all years of record if fewer than ten years are available, of the area in cultivation in the division or subdivision thereof of the project in which the land is located, as found by the Secretary annually. The decision of the Secretary as to the amount of any such installment shall be conclusive. These annual payments shall continue until the total construction charge against each unit is paid. The Secretary is authorized upon request to amend any existing contract for a project water right so that it will provide for payment of the construction charge thereunder in accordance with the provisions of this subsection or for the deferment of such construction charges for a period of three years from the approval of this section, or both.

SUBSEC. G. That whenever two-thirds of the irrigable area of any project, or division of a project, shall be covered by water right contracts between the water users and the United States, said project shall be required, as a condition precedent to receiving the benefits of this section to take over, through a legally organized water users' association or irrigation district, of care, operation, and maintenance of all or any part of the project works, subject to such rules and regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, and thereafter the United States, in its relation to said project, shall deal with a water users' association or irrigation district, and when the water users assume control of a project, the operation and maintenance charges for the year then current shall be covered into the construction account to be repaid as part of the construction repayments.

SUBSEC. H. That the penalty of 1 per centum per month against delinquent accounts, provided in section 3 and section 6 of the Act of August 13, 1914 (Thirty-eighth Statutes, page 686), is hereby reduced to one-half of 1 per centum per month, as to all installments which may hereafter become due.

SUBSEC. I. That whenever the water users take over the care, operation, and maintenance of a project, or a division of a project, the total accumulated net profits, as determined by the Secretary, derived from the operation of project power plants, leasing of

project grazing and farm lands, and the sale or use of town sites shall be credited to the construction charge of the project, or a division thereof, and thereafter the net profits from such sources may be used by the water users to be credited annually, first, on account of project construction charge, second, on account of project operation and maintenance charge, and third, as the water users may direct. No distribution to individual water users shall be made out of any such profits before all obligations to the Government shall have been fully paid.

SUBSEC. J. That all moneys or profits as determined by the Secretary heretofore or hereafter derived from the sale or rental of surplus water under the Warren Act of February 21, 1911 (Thirty-sixth Statutes, page 925), or from the connection of a new project with an existing project shall be credited to the project or division of the project to which the construction cost has been charged.

SUBSEC. K. That on each existing project where, in the opinion of the Secretary, it appears that on account of lack of fertility in the soil, an inadequate water supply, or other physical causes, settlers are unable to pay construction costs, or whenever it appears that the cost of any reclamation project by reason of error or mistake or for any cause has been apportioned or charged upon a smaller area of land than the total area of land under said project, the Secretary is authorized to undertake a comprehensive and detailed survey to ascertain all pertinent facts, and report in each case the result of such survey to the Congress, with his recommendations: Provided, That the cost and expense of each such survey shall be charged to the appropriation for the project on account of which the same is made, but shall not be charged as a part of the construction or operation and maintenance cost payable by the water users under the project.

SUBSEC. L. That in any adjustment of water charges as provided in this section all due and unpaid charges to the United States, both on account of construction and on account of operation and maintenance, including interest and penalties, shall be added in each case to the total obligation of the water user, and the new total thus established shall then be the construction charge against the land in question.

SUBSEC. M. That every entryman or assignee on a project farm unit not yet patented which unit shall be found by the Secretary to be insufficient to support a family and pay water charges shall have the right upon application to exchange his entry for another farm unit of unentered public land on the same or another project located in the same State, in which event all installments of construction charges theretofore paid on account of the relinquished farm unit shall be credited on account of the new farm unit taken in exchange: Provided, That where two entrymen apply for the same farm unit under the exchange provision of this subsection, only one of whom is an ex-service man, as defined by the joint resolution of January 21, 1922 (Forty-second Statutes, page 358), the ex-service man shall have a preference in making such exchange.

SUBSEC. N. That all contracts providing for new projects and new divisions of projects shall require that all operation and maintenance charge shall be payable in advance. In each case where the care, operation, and maintenance of a project or division of a project are transferred to the water users the contract shall require the payment of operation and maintenance charges in advance. That whenever an adjustment of water charges is made under this section the adjustment contract shall provide that thereafter all operation and maintenance charges shall be payable in advance.

SUBSEC. O. That the cost and expense after June 30, 1925, of the main office at Washington, District of Columbia, of the Bureau of Reclamation in the Department of the Interior, and the cost and expense of general investigations heretofore and hereafter authorized by the Secretary, shall be charged to the general reclamation fund and shall not be charged as a part of the construction or operation and maintenance cost payable by the water users under the projects.

SUBSEC. P. That where, in the opinion of the Secretary, a right of way or easement of any kind over public land is required in connection with a project the Secretary may reserve the same to the United States by filing in the General Land Office and in the appropriate local land office copies of an instrument giving a description of the right of way or easement and notice that the same is reserved to the United States for Federal irrigation purposes under this section, in which event entry for such land and the patent issued therefor shall be subject to the right of way or easement so described in such instrument; and reference to each such instrument shall be made in the appropriate tract books and also in the patent.

SUBSEC. Q. That where real property or any interest therein heretofore has been, or hereafter shall be, donated and conveyed to the United States for use in connection with a project, and the Secretary decides not to utilize the donation, he is authorized without charge to reconvey such property or any part thereof to the donating grantor, or to the heirs, successors, or assigns of such grantor.

SUBSEC. R. That there is hereby authorized to be appropriated from the General Treasury, the sum of $100,000 for investigations to be made by the Secretary through the Bureau of Reclamation to obtain necessary information to determine how arid and semiarid, swamp, and cut-over timberlands may best be developed.

RECLAMATION PROJECT ACT OF 1939

[Extracts from] An act to provide a feasible and comprehensive plan for the variable payment of construction charges on United States reclamation projects, to protect the investment of the United States in such projects, and for other purposes. (Act of August 4, 1939, 55 Stat. 1187, 1192, 1193, 1195, 1196, Public Law 260, 76th Cong., 1st sess.)

SEC. 1. That for the purpose of providing for United States reclamation projects a feasible and comprehensive plan for an economical and equitable treatment of repayment problems and for variable payments of construction charges which can be met regularly and fully from year to year during periods of decline in agricultural income and unsatisfactory conditions of agriculture as well as during periods of prosperity and good prices for agricultural products, and which will protect adequately the financial interest of the United States in said projects, obligations to pay construction charges may be revised or undertaken pursuant to the provisions of this Act.

SEC. 7 (a). The Secretary is hereby authorized and directed to investigate the repayment problems of any existing project contract unit in connection with which, in his judgment, a contract under section 3 or 4 of this Act would not be practicable nor provide an economically sound adjustment, and to negotiate a contract which, in his judgment, both would provide fair and equitable treatment of the repayment problems involved and would be in keeping with the general purpose of this Act.

SEC. 7 (b). For any project, division of a project, development unit of a project, or supplemental works on a project, now under construction or for which appropriations have been made, and in connection with which a repayment contract has not been executed, allocations of costs may be made in accordance with the provisions of section 9 of this Act and a repayment contract may be negotiated, in the discretion of the Secretary, (1) pursuant to the authority of subsection (a) of this section or (2) in accordance, as near as may be, with the provisions in subsection 9 (d) or 9 (e) of this Act.

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SEC. 7 (c). The Secretary from time to time shall report to the Congress on any proposed contracts negotiated pursuant to the authority of subsection (a) or (b) (1) of this section, and he may execute any such contract on behalf of the United States only after approval thereof has been given by Act of Congress.

SEC. 9 (a). No expenditures for the construction of any new

project, new division of a project, or new supplemental works on a project shall be made, nor shall estimates be submitted therefor, by the Secretary until after he has made an investigation thereof and has submitted to the President and to the Congress his report and findings on

(1) The engineering feasibility of the proposed construction;

(2) The estimated cost of the proposed construction;

(3) The part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to irrigation and probably be repaid by the water users;

(4) The part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to power and probably be returned to the United States in net power revenues;

(5) The part of the estimated cost which can properly be allocated to municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes and probably be returned to the United States.

If the proposed construction is found by the Secretary to have engineering feasibility and if the repayable and returnable allocations to irrigation, power, and municipal water supply or other miscellaneous purposes found by the Secretary to be proper, together with any allocation to flood control or navigation made under subsection (b) of this section, equal the total estimated cost of construction as determined by the Secretary, then the new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project, covered by his findings, shall be deemed authorized and may be undertaken by the Secretary. If all such allocations do not equal said total estimated cost, then said new project, new division, or new supplemental works may be undertaken by the Secretary only after provision therefor has been made by Act of Congress enacted after the Secretary has submitted to the President and the Congress the report and findings involved.

SEC. 9 (b). In connection with any new project, new division of a project, or supplemental works on a project there may be allocated to flood control or navigation the part of said total estimated cost which the Secretary may find to be proper. Items for any such allocations made in connection with projects which may be undertaken pursuant to subsection (a) of this section shall be included in the estimates of appropriations submitted by the Secretary for said projects, and funds for such portions of the projects shall not become available except as directly appropriated or allotted to the Department of the Interior. In connection with the making of such an allocation, the Secretary shall consult with the Chief of Engineers and the Secretary of War, and may perform any of the necessary investigations or studies under a cooperative agreement with the Secretary of War. In the event of such an allocation the Secretary of the Interior shall operate the project for purposes of flood control or navigation, to the extent justified by said allocation therefor.

SEC. 9 (c). The Secretary is authorized to enter into contracts to furnish water for municipal water supply or miscellaneous purposes: Provided, That any such contract either (1) shall require repayment to the United States, over a period of not to exceed forty years from the year in which water is first delivered