OCR Text |
Show The Senator Reports To The People Senator Arthur V. Watkins I f 4 A Bv the time Utah readers see this story a i quite likely will have been established that will citl sure or destroy future reclamation development. Legislation (S-75) to authorize construction BridgeCanyon Dam on the Colorado River as v the power and irrigation features, the latter of v commonly known as the Central Arizona Project, is ing before the Senate. I am supporting the legislation for two major ons. First, it apparently is going to be impossib Arizona and California to settle their claims for Col' River water without a legal decision from the I States Supreme Court. This legislation will provii' legal issue upon which an appeal to the high cou: be based. Secondly, if the Central Arizona project can 1 feated on its merits, then the same arguments can b( to defeat legislation to authorize the Central Utah ect, and also the Dixie project. It is my sincere hope that by the time this is in Utah the Senate of the United States will hav. proved S-75, thereby opening the way for a legal s ment of the Arizona-California differences. Such i also will give added assurances to reclamation states their basin-wide development programs, such as C( Utah, can be argued and approved on their merits. DRAFT AND UMT It pleased me very much that the viewpoint o House of Representatives prevailed in legislatio extend the draft and provide for Universal Mil Training. When the legislation was before the Senate ( nally I supported an effort to eliminate the U M T p sion for the present. Since U M T cannot be underl while the draft is in effect, it was my view that thi portant national policy be subjected to entirely sep, investigation, study and action by the Congress. Senate has now approved the House version of the islation and this study and planning will be carrie with subsequent reports being made to the Congres also supported efforts in the Senate to limi draft to I8V2 year olds and I am happy that the I stood fast on this issue, also. SALARY INCREASES The Senate Post Office and Civil Service Conin is now studying the possibility of increasing salarii government employes. The committee has not fini its study of the legislation and the evidence which committee has obtained is not yet available. Annoi ment from committee members, however, indicates salary increases ranging from slightly more than in the lower grades to more than $900 in the. higher gr may be recommended in the legislation. It seems to me that such a program is merely petuating a fallacy which fails to consider the li needs of employes. A more equitable increase woul to give those in the lower pay brackets a higher per age increase as well as a greater actual increase in t of dollars, while reducing both the percentage and d increases in the higher brackets. |