Secretary of the Interior Stewart L. Udall stated today that the revised budget estimate for fiscal year 1962 which President Kennedy submitted to the Congress is a great step forward in the Administration's programs in conserving and developing our Nation's natural and human resources.
"The request for additional appropriation of $40,668,000 over the amount submitted by the previous administration", he said, “will launch a vigorous resources program.”
"No longer", he continued, "can we afford to delay progress in developing our basic wealth in water, land, forests, and minerals. The very well-being of each of us depends upon their timely and wise utilization."
The additional request of $40,668,000 will bring the total budget of the Department to $806,360,000 for fiscal year 1962, which begins this coming July 1.
The increased appropriations are being requested for most of the constituent bureaus of the Department as follows:
Public Land Management
Bureau of Land Management ............ $2,958,000
Bureau of Indian Affairs ................. 21,136,000
National Park Service .............. 11,000,000
Office of Territories .............. -565,000
Total, Public Land Management $34,529,000
Mineral Resources
Bureau of Mines ............. $1,000,000
Fish and Wildlife
Bureau of Commercial Fisheries ..........$2,500,000
Water and Power
Bonneville Power Administration ............$2,314,000
Administration
Office of the Secretary .......325,000
Total Increase .................40,668,000
The increases in appropriations are an initial step in meeting the challenging needs in resource development. "The investments made through use of these funds will be returned many-fold" the Secretary said.
BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENTThe increase of $2,958,000 for 1962 will permit acceleration of the Bureau's programs in furtherance of the objectives for conservation, protection and development of the public lands and their resources which were stated in President Kennedy's Message to the Congress on Natural Resources.
The increase in management funds includes $1,000,000 to accelerate the installation of soil-conserving and water-saving works and practices to reduce erosion and improve forage capacity; and to proceed with the revegetation of rangelands on which the forage capacity has been badly depleted or destroyed. The acceleration of the range resource inventory and adjudication of grazing privileges among competing applicants requires $316,000 in additional funds and will result in more orderly use of range resources and greater stability of the Western livestock industry. Forest management protection and development on public domain lands and on Oregon and California Grant lands will be expanded with the increase of $564,000 provided for these purposes. Additional funds in the amount of $300,000 will be used to expand lands and minerals classification and field examination work to begin development of a comprehensive resource inventory and to implement improved resource management based on that inventory. The amount of $200,000 will be used to expand the fire preparedness and prevention activities of the Bureau in order to provide greater protection to the valuable surface resources of the public lands, Cadastral survey of public land areas, especially where such surveys are essential to other resource management programs, also is increased by $200,000. Finally, $78,000 is included to rehabilitate and improve the maintenance of existing buildings and facilities of the Bureau.
The $300,000 in construction funds will be used to accelerate the construction of access roads and buildings necessary to the resource program. Of this amount, $225,000 will be used for the construction of additional access roads to saleable stands of timber on public domain lands, for use in other resource management activities, including fire protection and to provide recreational access to public lands. The amount of $75,000 will be used for design and construction of buildings needed in the management programs of the Bureau.
BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRSThe additional $20,000,000 of construction funds for fiscal year 1962 requested by the Bureau of Indian Affairs represents the initial step in a program to construct school facilities for the approximately 5,000 Indian children presently out of school because of the lack of school facilities. The funds will provide for the construction of education facilities at 26 locations and will provide 1,990 additional classroom seats and the replacement of 1,310 classroom seats. These locations are primarily on the Navajo Reservation in the States of Arizona and New Mexico, and in Alaska and Mississippi.
The $1,000,000 requested for Repair and Maintenance of Buildings and Utilities will be used to correct unsafe and unsanitary conditions in many of the 8,300 individual buildings and utility systems at 100 locations throughout the United States.
The $136,000 requested for Operation, Repair, and Maintenance of Indian Irrigation Systems will be used to assist those Indians of the Gila River Indian Reservation in Arizona and the Yakima Reservation in Washington, who are financially unable to pay their irrigation operation and maintenance assessment.
NATIONAL PARK SERVICEThe increase in Park Service programs is $11,000,000. An additional $1,000,000 will give impetus to the cooperative program of planning for development of public parks and recreation areas in all parts of the country and at all levels of government--metropolitan, county, State, and Federal. The Nation's future vitality is to a great extent dependent upon the availability of parks and open spaces for healthful outdoor recreation. However, suitable areas for this purpose are rapidly being lost to other uses, particularly in and around cities and large centers of population where the need is greatest. The results of such a long-range program will help to stabilize the economics of depressed regions where, in many cases, recreation is the most valuable remaining untapped resource.
An additional $4,000,000 will provide for a more orderly and economical approach to the program of acquiring privately owned lands within the boundaries of existing National Park Service areas and of lands required for establishment of newly authorized areas. Of this amount, $2,000,000 would be used to acquire lands in the newly authorized Minute Man National Historical Park, Massachusetts, $500,000 would be used to acquire lands in Civil War areas, and the remaining $1,500,000 would be used to acquire lands at various other areas administered by the Service. This sum, together with the $2,200,000 included in the budget submitted to Congress on January 16, 1961, will provide a total of $6,200,000. It will permit the National Park Service to take a more vigorous approach in the all-important program of acquiring those lands of highest priority which are needed for Mission 66 developments or to preclude adverse uses which would be contrary to the fundamental purposes of the areas.
The additional amount requested for park developments in the 1962 fiscal year-- $4,000,000 for buildings, utilities, and miscellaneous facilities and $2,000,000 for roads and trails--will permit a good start on beach erosion control and stabilization at Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina; construction of a training center for ranger personnel at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona; and a beginning of developments in three New York City areas--Castle Clinton National Monument, Federal Hall National Memorial, and Statue of Liberty National Monument. The program for the New York City areas is to be financed on a matching basis from donated and appropriated funds. The matching funds are being raised by groups cooperating with the New York City National Shrines Advisory Board. It is the aim of these groups to complete developments prior to the time of the World's Fair opening in New York City in 1964. In addition to the foregoing, building and utility projects will be instituted in various other parks located in or near depressed areas.
The additional roads and trails moneys in the amount of $2,000,000 are programmed far a parking area at Newfound Gap, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina and Tennessee; for completion (except for final paving) of the new entrance road for Dinosaur National Monument, Utah and Colorado, which begins at Artesia, Colorado, on U. S. Route 40; and for augmenting road projects at Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, and Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado.
OFFICE OF TERRITORIESThe reduction of $565,000 for 1962 in the estimate results from a like increase in 1961 which will allow for accelerating construction of school buildings and the jet airport at American Samoa. The school buildings will also be used to house the South Pacific Conference to be held at American Samoa in July 1962.
BUREAU OF MINESAs the first step in expanding the materials research program, an increase of $1,000,000 is being requested. The urgency of an accelerated materials program attaches primarily to our scientific position in a highly competitive international situation. Our weaknesses on the scientific front have been, and will be, promptly exploited by other nations. The need to improve our situation in this area is imperative rather than merely desirable.
The program will accelerate development of new substances, new ways to employ conventional materials, particularly the metals, and the discovery of practical means of producing materials with special or unusual properties. It will supply new concepts which the designer may confidently employ for both defense and peaceful purposes. Perhaps of major significance, the program will promote the establishment of new industry and determine how satisfactorily the segments of our economy that rest on the effective employment of our resources will survive and expand.
BUREAU OF COMMERCIAL FISHERIESThe increase of $1,500,000 for basic research by the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries is necessary for continuation of an intensified salmon research program, The United states may lose a substantial portion of its North Pacific salmon fisheries in 1963 unless these resources are brought under a complete scientific conservation regime. This concept is the substance of the International Convention for the High Seas Fisheries of the North Pacific Ocean, which is subject to renegotiation in 1963.
The increase of $1,000,000 will allow for basic marine biological research as a part of the national program for oceanography. This is responsive to the President's interest expressed in his State of the Union message to the Congress as well as his statement on natural resources. Significant additional knowledge of the marine biological processes is essential for defense and resource development.
BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATIONThe additional estimate of $2,314,000 will allow the Bonneville Power Administration to move forward in meeting the Secretary's power policy announced on February 14, 1961. To furnish sufficient low-cost power to rural, domestic, and industrial customers, it will be necessary to build additional transmission facilities and provide for a sound power marketing program. The additional facilities to be constructed in 1962, upon completion, will put presently available power resources to effective use, which at the present time are wasting to the sea.
The proposed facilities include two 230-kv lines to the Oregon coastal area to provide adequate service primarily to Bonneville's preference customers in the Tillamook and Reedsport areas. Present service to these areas is provided mostly over 115-kv lines which are overloading and cannot provide for increased economic development of the areas or to meet normal load increases. The 1962 requirements for these two lines are $654,000 and total costs will be $8,240,000 when completed by the fall of 1964; $380,000 is requested for a 345-kv line and substation facilities between The Dalles area to the Portland area which will have a total cost of $13,000, 000. The line is needed by the fall of 1964 to reinforce the system in the Portland and Willamette Valley of the Federal grid. Later this line will be extended to the John Day Dam when it comes on the line in 1967.
A 345-kv line between the Seattle area north to the Canadian border will be started to provide a means of transmitting a part of Canada's entitlement from cooperative development of the Columbia Basin. This line is also needed to provide increased capacity into Canada where there is a market for sale of surplus secondary energy. Total cost of the facility is $10,000,000 and 1962 requirements are $425,000.
An amount of $1,000,000 is requested for construction of a 115-kv line from Lebanon, Oregon to the Green Peter Dam site. Initially the line will provide capacity for construction power and later will be used to market the power to be generated when the dam is completed. Total cost of this line is $1,165,000 and is scheduled for energization in the summer of 1962.
In the Operation and Maintenance request of Bonneville, there is a net reduction of $145,000. A recent agreement with the Washington Water Power Company eliminates the need for $370,000 originally programmed to pay the cost of wheeling power over the company's facilities to BPA preference customers. The company will accept payment in the form of surplus secondary energy. An increase of $225,000 is requested in the power marketing activity to provide for a small increase in staff and to hire consulting services so that economic and marketing information can be brought up to date with a view to increasing revenues through additional sale of power.
OFFICE OF THE SECRETARYThe increase of $325,000 is being submitted to provide the Secretary and other Secretarial officers with professional staff assistants. There is a pressing need for adequate staff assistance in the development of long-range natural resource programs, for coordination of programs within the Department, and with other Government agencies, and for meeting day-to-day problems.
The increase would also provide for two assistants to the Secretary; one for coordination of scientific research programs, and the other as a liaison officer on Congressional matters.
