[North Platte project-Contracts for payment of construction and operation and maintenance charges.]-North Platte project, NebraskaWyoming: For operation and maintenance, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $1,500,000: Provided, That no part of this amount shall be available for maintenance and operation of any division of the project after December 31, 1926, unless a contract or contracts shall have been made with an irrigation district or with irrigation districts organized under State law providing for payment of construction and operation and maintenance charges against lands of that division by such district or districts. (44 Stat. 482.) [Newlands project-Use of unexpended balance-Use of balance for drainage restricted.]-Newlands project, Nevada: For operation and maintenance, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $135,000: Provided, That not to exceed $17,000 of the unexpended balance of the appropriation of $167,000 for the fiscal year 1926, made available by the act of March 3, 1925 (Forty-third Statutes, p. 1167), shall remain available for the fiscal year 1927: Provided further, That the appropriation of $245,000 made available by the act of June 5, 1924 (Forty-third Statutes, p. 415), and reappropriated for the fiscal year 1926 by the act of March 3, 1925 (Forty-third Statutes, p. 1167), shall remain available for the fiscal year 1927 for use for drainage purposes, but only after execution by the Truckee-Carson irrigation district of an appropriate reimbursement contract satisfactory in form to the Secretary of the Interior and confirmation of such contract by decree of a court of competent jurisdiction and final decision on all appeals from such decree. (44 Stat. 482.) [Newlands project-Spanish Springs division-Contracts for payment of cost of constructing, operating and maintaining works while in control of United States-Cooperation by States-Operation and maintenance 'charges on lands in division.]-Newlands project, Spanish Springs division, Nevada: For continued investigations, commencement or continuation of construction, and incidental operations, the unexpended balance of the appropriation of $500,000 for the fiscal year 1926, made available by the act of March 3, 1925 (Forty-third Statutes, p. 1167), shall remain available for the fiscal year 1927: Provided, That no water shall be delivered to irrigators on this division outside of the limits of the Truckee-Carson irrigation district until a contract or contracts in form approved by the Secretary of the Interior shall have been made with an irrigation district or with irrigation districts organized under State law providing for payment by the district or districts of the cost of constructing, operating, and maintaining the works during the time they are in the control of the United States, such cost of constructing to be repaid within such terms of years as the Secretary may find to be necessary, in any event not more than forty years from the date of public notice hereinafter referred to, and the execution of said contract or contracts shall have been confirmed by a decree of a court of competent jurisdiction. Prior to or in connection with the settlement and the development of each of these projects, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized in his discretion to enter into agreement with the proper authorities of the State whereby such State shall cooperate with the United States in promoting the settlement of the projects or divisions after completion and in the securing and selecting of settlers. Such contract or contracts with irrigation districts hereinbefore referred to shall further provide that all irrigable land held in private ownership by any one owner in excess of one hundred and sixty irrigable acres shall be appraised in a manner to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior and the sale prices thereof affixed by the Secretary on the basis of its actual bona fide value at the date of appraisal without reference to the proposed construction of the irrigation works; and that no such excess lands so held shall receive water from the division if the owners thereof shall refuse to execute valid recordable contracts for sale of such lands under terms and conditions satisfactory to the Secretary of the Interior and at prices not to exceed those fixed by the Secretary of the Interior, and that until one-half of the construction charges against said lands shall have been fully paid no sale of any such lands shall carry the right to receive water unless and until the purchase price involved in such sale is approved by the Secretary of the Interior, and that upon proof of fraudulent representation as to the true consideration involved in such sales the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to cancel the water right attaching to the land involved in such fraudulent sales: Provided further, That the operation and maintenance charges on account of lands in said division shall be paid annually in advance not later than March 1. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to give public notice when water is actually available, and the operation and maintenance charges payable to the United States for the first year after such public notice shall be transferred to and paid as a part of the construction payment. (44 Stat. 482.) [Vale project-Balance available-Purchase of reservoir of Warm Springs project-Drainage construction.]-Vale project, Oregon: For continued investigations, commencement or continuation of construction, and incidental operations, the unexpended balance of the appropriation of $500,000 for the fiscal year 1926, made available by the act of March 3, 1925 (Forty-third Statutes, p. 1168), shall remain available for the fiscal year 1927: Provided, That not more than $200,000 of the amount herein appropriated shall be available for purchases of a proportionate interest in the existing storage reservoir of the Warm Springs project, said interest to be conveyed to the United States free of all prior liens and encumbrances of every kind whatever: Provided further, That the contract for the purchase of said interest in said reservoir shall also provide for construction of the necessary drainage works by the said Warm Springs and Vale projects and the proportion of cost of said works to be borne by each. (44 Stat. 483.) [Baker project-Balance reappropriated.]-Baker project, Oregon: For investigation, commencement of construction, and incidental operations, the unexpended balance of the appropriation for this purpose for the fiscal year 1926 is reappropriated and made available for the fiscal year 1927. (44 Stat. 483.) [Salt Lake Basin project, first division-Contracts with irrigation districts or water users' associations for payment of charges-Operation and maintenance charges.]-Salt Lake Basin project, Utah, first division: For continued investigations, construction of Echo Reservoir, Utah Lake control, and Weber-Provo Canal, operation and maintenance, and incidental operations, the unexpended balance of any appropriation available for these purposes for the fiscal year 1926 shall be available during the fiscal year 1927: Provided, That no part of this appropriation shall be used for construction purposes until a contract or contracts in form approved by the Secretary of the Interior shall have been made with an irrigation district or with irrigation districts organized under State law, or water users' association or associations, providing for payment by the district or districts, or water users' association or associations: Provided further, That the operation and maintenance charges on account of land in this project shall be paid annually in advance not later than March 1. It shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Interior to give public notice when water is actually available for such lands, and the operation and maintenance charges, if any, payable to the United States for the first year after such public notice shall be transferred to and paid as a part of the construction payment. (44 Stat. 484.) [Shoshone project-Frannie division-Investigating feasibility of discontinuing any part of project-Balance available.]-Shoshone project, Wyoming: For operation and maintenance, continuation of construction, and incidental operations and investigation of remainder of project, $128,000: Provided, That no part of this amount shall be available for maintenance and operation of the Frannie division after December 31, 1926, and that any moneys which may be advanced for construction and operation and maintenance of the said Frannie division after that date shall be covered into the reclamation fund and shall be available for expenditure for the purposes for which contributed in like manner as if said funds had been specifically appropriated for said purposes: Provided further, That the Secretary of the Interior is authorized to use so much of this amount as may be necessary in investigating the feasibility of discontinuing the operation of any portion of this project and removing the water users thereon to other lands elsewhere on the project and shall report hereon to Congress as early as may be practicable: Provided further, That not to exceed $150,000 of the unexpended balance of the appropriation of $414,000 for the fiscal year 1926, made available by the act of March 3, 1925 (Forty-third Statutes, p. 1171), shall remain available for the fiscal year 1927. (44 Stat. 484.) * * [Investigations to determine economic conditions-Expenditure supplementary to allowance for projects.]-Economic investigations and development of reclamation projects: For investigations necessary to determine the economic conditions and financial feasibility of new projects, and for investigations relating to the reorganization and of soils, classification of land, and obtaining general economic_and settlement data, $100,000: Provided, That the expenditures from this appropriation for any reclamation project shall be considered as supplementary to the appropriation for that project and shall be accounted for and returned to the reclamation fund as are other expenditures under the reclamation act. (44 Stat. 484.) NOTES Government not authorized to pay expense of land-selling campaign.—The expenses of obtaining options, the publishing in periodicals of advertisements descriptive of land and the advantages and opportunities offered to prospective settlers-in other words the expenses of land-selling campaign—have no relation to the objects for which this appropriation was made. Therefore, neither this appropriation nor any other appropriation not made so available in specific terms, is available for the payment of such expenses. (Comp. Gen. Dec. (A-15385), August 26, 1926.) [Maintaining Colorado River levee adjacent to Yuma project.]—For the share of the Government of the United States of the costs of operating and maintaining the Colorado River front work and levee system adjacent to the Yuma Federal irrigation project in Arizona and California, as authorized by the act entitled "An act authorizing the construction, repair, and preservation of certain public works on rivers and harbors, and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1925 (Forty-third Statutes, p. 1186), $35,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, to be transferred to the reclamation fund, special fund, created by the act of June 17, 1902 (Thirty-second Statutes, p. 388), and to be expended under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior in accordance with the provisions applicable to appropriations made for the fiscal year 1927 from the reclamation fund. (44 Stat. 485.) [Arid, cut-over timber lands-Investigations for developing.]-For investigations to be made by the Secretary of the Interior through the Bureau of Reclamation to obtain necessary information to determine how arid and semiarid, swamp, and cut-over timber lands in any of the States of the United States may be best developed, as authorized by subsection R, section 4, second deficiency act, fiscal year 1924, approved December 5, 1924 (Forty-third Statutes, p. 704), including the general objects of expenditure enumerated and permitted under the second paragraph in this act under the caption "Bureau of Reclamation," and including mileage for motor cycles and automobiles at the rates and under the conditions authorized herein in connection with reclamation projects. $15,000. (44 Stat. 485.) * * * Sec. 2. [Field work appropriations available for work animals, vehicles, etc.]-Appropriations herein made for field work under the Bureau of Reclamation, * * * shall be available for the hire, with or without personal services, of work animals and animal-drawn and motor-propelled vehicles and equipment. (44 Stat. 496.) PATENT FOR LAND IN TOWN SITE OF HEYBURN, IDAHO An act providing for the issuance of patent to the Boyle Commission Company for block numbered 223, town site of Heyburn, Idaho. (Act May 17, 1926, ch. 315, 44 Stat., pt. 2, p. 15.) [Authority to issue patent for land, Heyburn, Idaho, without requiring further payments-Patent subject to conditions of acts of 1906.]—That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized and directed to issue a patent under the act of April 16, 1906 (Thirty-fourth Statutes, page 116), and the act of June 27, 1906 (Thirty-fourth Statutes, page 519), to the Boyle Commission Company, for block numbered 223, town site of Heyburn, Idaho, without requiring any further payments on account of the purchase price fixed for said land: Provided, That, except for the reduction thus made in the purchase price, the issuance of patent shall be subject to all the conditions and limitations of the aforesaid acts of April 16, 1906, and June 27, 1906. |