Legislation News & Report (TM)

TheWeekInCongress.com (TM)  

Off-site Links

GET TO KNOW WHO REPRESENTS YOU

A New Wiki with Extensive Background Data on Lawmakers.

Where Does the Money Go?

Who is Receiving Loans, Grants & Other Federal Spending?

Who's Giving Money to Your Federal Elected Officials?

Who's Giving Money to Your State Elected Officials?

Does Your Opinion

Match the Polls?

TheWeekInCongress.com (TM)

Week Ending December 8, 2006

H.R.4000 To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to revise certain repayment contracts with the Bostwick Irrigation District in Nebraska, the Kansas Bostwick Irrigation District No. 2, the Frenchman-Cambridge Irrigation District, and the Webster Irrigation District No. 4, all a part of the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program, and for other purposes.

The Secretary of Interior is authorized to renegotiate contracts with irrigation districts served by the Missouri Basin Pick-Sloan reclamation program. The districts are Bostwick Irrigation District in Nebraska, the Kansas Bostwick District No 2, the Frenchman-Cambridge District and the Webster District No 4.

When the four districts renewed their forty year repayment plan obligations for construction costs were left out of the contracts. The repayment for construction costs must be completed by no later that 2015.

The repayment schemes are for reimbursable construction costs and are necessary because the costs of maintaining the irrigation districts continues even though water supplies in Nebraska and Kansas are at historic lows to the extent that some of the district’s distribution areas are receiving no water at all and the districts then receive less income.

The Secretary of Interior will revise the repayment schedule for all the districts by  equalizing the total amount of annual repayment and adjust the annual deposits into the distribution reserve fund and the district water supply reserve fund for another ten years.

The districts will make smaller payment in the first ten years of the contract and larger payments after that

Sponsor:  Rep. Jerry Moran (R-KS-1^st)

Vote: Passed House by voice vote December 19, 2005. Passed Senate by Unanimous Consent November 16, 2006.

Cost to the taxpayers: “CBO estimates that H.R. 4000 will increase direct spending by almost $3.5 million over the 2007-2016 period. Over the next 35 years, aggregate receipts to the government will be unchanged.”

## All Rights Reserved. © 2006 TheWeekInCongress.com(TM)

No reproduction, language translation or distribution without written permission from TheWeekInCongress.com.(TM)