Letter to the President of the Senate and to the Speaker of the House Transmitting Report of the U.S. Study Commission-Texas.

Dear Mr.____________:

Pursuant to section 209(c) Of the Act approved August 28, 1958, as amended by the Act approved September 8, 1959, I am transmitting the final report of the United States Study Commission-Texas. This section of the act provides that I send the report to Congress with my views, comments, and recommendations within ninety days after its receipt by me from the Commission. The Commission presents a plan for the development of land and water resources in the Neches, Trinity, Brazos, Colorado, Guadalupe, San Antonio, Nueces, and San Jacinto River Basins and intervening areas, Texas. The comments of the Governor of the State of Texas, and of the heads of the federal agencies who have an interest in the plan, are included as a part of the report.

This report is the product of a cooperative river basin planning effort conducted under the study commission form of organization. It offers a flexible plan to meet the water development needs for a large and growing segment of our economy over the next 50 years.

The Commission has recommended that the portion of its plan considered necessary to satisfy municipal and industrial water supply needs by 1975 be conditionally authorized for federal participation. Several of the projects in this group have been or will soon be sent to the Congress for full authorization. I urge that these be authorized as recommended. Other projects in the first phase plan are already being built or will be built by the people of Texas, without Federal assistance. These projects, of course, do not require Federal approval.

Detailed project plans, providing the physical and economic evaluation data normally required for authorization purposes, have not been developed for the remaining projects in the first phase plan in which there is thought to be a federal interest. Conditional authorization of these projects by the Congress at this time would be a departure from the normal practice although the recommendation of the Commission is patterned after examples included in the River and Harbor Act of 1960 and the flood Control Acts of 1958 and 1960. Nevertheless it may be preferable that authorization by the Congress of each project await the completion of evaluation studies and detailed investigations. The Congress will doubtless wish to consider the merits of the Commission's recommendation.

The need to plan and to coordinate action programs does not end with the submission of this report and the termination of the Study Commission. As some of these projects are completed, as the economy develops, and as population in the basins increases, plans must be reviewed and adjusted to meet requirements that cannot be foreseen at this time. Arrangements for keeping the plan current can be adequately provided for by enactment of the Water Resources Planning Act, which was introduced in the last session of the Congress and for which I reaffirmed my support in the Conservation Message this past February.

I commend the report of the Commission to the Congress as a guide for future federal participation with the State of Texas in the development of the water and related land resources of the study area.

Sincerely,

JOHN F. KENNEDY