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Show Signature Of President Is Final Step In Full Victory The Salt Lake Tribune this morning carried the glad news of the final approval by Congress of the conference report for the 760-million 760-million -dollar federal Upper Colorado River Storage Project. The bill easily cleared the Congress Wednesday afternoon and was immediately' immed-iately' dispatched to the White House where the signature' of President Eisenhower is expected without delay. When the measure had cleared its last legislative hurdle, Sen. Arthur V. Watk-ins (R-Utah) called President Dwight D. Eisenhowei and asked as a special favor that he "expedite his consideration." The Utahn also disclosed he' was requesting the Department of the Interior In-terior to ask for necessary funds so construction work could start "without delay." ' Less Than Minute The long awaited final 'legislative 'legisla-tive action represented somewhat of an anti-climax since the conference' confer-ence' report encountered no opposition oppo-sition in either house of Congress. In the House, which had passed the bill 27 days ago after a long and tough battle, the report was adopted in less than a minute. Even the usually long winded Senate Sen-ate disposed of the measure in 25 minutes. Along with the final action came a noticeable change in tune from Southern California, who had so vigorously opposed the Upper Colorado Project and used every means iri their power to try and block the Upper Basin development. develop-ment. Lauds Final Form . Rep. Craig Hosmer, Long Beach Republican who had been soundly trounce-d, brazenly issued a statement state-ment saying the measure in its final form contained "in a large part the water-right principles for which I fought." Northcutt Ely, the Southern California Cal-ifornia lobbyist and water attorney, attor-ney, said in a press handout, "Even though we were defeated in our opposition to the bill, our congres-I congres-I sional delegation has won a measure mea-sure of protection in the con-! con-! fere'nee report for the water and power contracts which are essen-! essen-! tial tO; California's economy." Caught By Surprise I Final House approval of the Upper Up-per Colorado bill came so fast that even some of the Upper Basin law makers were not on hand for the j important occasion. I Immediately after the opening prayer, House Speaker Sam Ray-burn Ray-burn (D-Tex.) called up the storage stor-age program. Hearing no objections, objec-tions, he pounded his gavel and declared the bill passed. After passage of the conference report, Mr. Hosmer asked for and received permission to raise a few questions. They were answered by Chairman Clair Engle (D-Calif.) of the House Interior committee who was chairman of the House managers man-agers for the conference. Denies 'Blank Check' Mr. Engle denied that this amounted to any "blank check" authorization and told his colleague col-league the conferees had "never at any time' set up any priority on projects." He expressed belief the i (Continued on Back Page) COLORADO RIVER . . . (Continued from Page One) authorization of $769 million was adequate but said if it wasn't it might be necessary in about 25 years to come back and ask Congress Con-gress to increase the amount. Rep. William A. Dawson (R-Utah), (R-Utah), hailed the House action and also called attention to Mr. Hos-mer's Hos-mer's claim of victory in this long water fight. Calls For Action Mr. -Dawson said that if Mr. Hosmer and his group were in such "perfect harmony" he now looked forward to their future support and could "see no reason why they should come in and oppose op-pose any appropriations for the project." |