Dear Mr. Chairman:
Work is now under way on Folsom Dam, on the American River in California, which was authorized for construction by the Corps of Engineers, Department of the Army, in the Flood Control Act, approved December 22, 1944.
Last year, in a message dated January 12, 1948, I recommended that the Congress expand the present authorization for the construction of Folsom Dam to provide (I) for the transfer of the dam and reservoir, upon its completion, to the Bureau of Reclamation for operation and maintenance as a coordinated unit of the Central Valley project under the Federal Reclamation law; (2) for construction by the Bureau of Reclamation of a power plant, afterbay and necessary transmission lines, and (3) for construction by the Bureau of Reclamation of irrigation canals and related works needed to deliver water from the reservoir to irrigation districts, cities, and suburban areas. For the reasons set forth in my message last year, I believe that these recommendations will provide for the achievement of the greatest possible benefits for the people of California and the Nation from the multiplepurpose use of the waters to be controlled by the Dam.
Although action on these recommendations was not completed in the 80th Congress, a number of bills to accomplish these same purposes are pending in the present Congress. I hope that your Committee and the Congress will act favorably on legislation to carry out these recommendations.
Sincerely yours,
HARRY S. TRUMAN
Note: This is the text of identical letters addressed to the Honorable Joseph C. O'Mahoney, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, and the Honorable Andrew L. Somers, Chairman of the House Committee on Public Lands.
On October 14, 1949, the President approved a bill "to authorize the American River Basin development, California, for irrigation and reclamation, and for other purposes" (63 Stat. 852).
Harry S Truman, Letter to Senate and House Committee Chairmen on the Folsom Dam. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/229933