BILL REQUEST - CODE REVISER'S OFFICE

BILL REQ. #: H-2196.1/09 ATTY/TYPIST: ML:cro

BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Requesting support for the Columbia Basin Project.
 

1 TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND

2 TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF

THE HOUSE OF

3 REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OF THE

 

4 UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO

   THE HONORABLE CHRISTINE O.

5 GREGOIRE, GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF

WASHINGTON:

6 We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of

7 the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled,

respectfully

8 represent and petition as

follows:

9 WHEREAS, The Columbia Basin Project stores and carries water

for

10 irrigation, produces electricity, controls floods, provides

recreation,

11 and regulates streamflow, as well as provides water for

cities,

 

12 industries, navigation, and endangered species;

 

and

13 WHEREAS, The Columbia Basin Project has successfully

distributed

 

14 enough irrigation water for approximately 650,000 acres of

agricultural

 

15 lands between Grand Coulee and the Qu ad Cities;

and

 

16 WHEREAS, The United States Bureau of Reclamation is studying

the

17 potential for building the second half, or "Phase II," of the

Columbia

​

18 Basin Project, extending irrigation water into portions of the

Odessa

 

19 Subarea;

Code Rev/ML:cro

 

1 H 2196.1/091

NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the

2 President and Congress support the vitally important Columbia

Basin

3 Project and direct the United States Bureau of Reclamation to

continue

 

4 its study and implementation of "Phase II" of the Columbia River

Basin

 

5 Project. More directly, your Memorialists request that President

Obama

6 and Governor Gregoire draft and sign Executive Orders designed

to

7 outline a Joint Venture Agreement between President

Obama's

 

8 Administration and the Gregoire Administration to:

(1) Finance Phase

9 II of the Columbia Basin Project;

(2) finance the remainder of those

10 canals and reservoirs held within the East High Canal Project

as

11 originally designed by Franklin D. Roosevelt's Administration;

(3)due

 

12 to the economic conditions of today's economic crisis,

request that all

 

13 funding options be mandated for review by the state and

federal

14 governments; and

(4) due to the economic conditions of our nation,

15 request a "Fast Track" approach to this project being reviewed

and

16 adhered to.

 

17 BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be

immediately

 

18 transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of

 

the United

 

19 States, the Honorable Christine O. Gregoire, Governor of the

State of

20 Washington, the President of the United States Senate, the

Speaker of

 

21 the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from

the

 

22 State of Washington.

 

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