The Senate failed to act Friday on re-authorization of the Central Utah Project. Staff members on the Senate Energy and Environment Committee insisted on changes to the Strawberry Water Users Agreement that Sen. Jake Garn, R-Utah, had sought to add to the House-passed funding bill.
The House approved a $45.4 million increase in the CUP spending authorization last week. That bill was not controversial in the Senate, but committee staffers insisted on changes in the Strawberry land exchange that Garn indicated he would take to the Strawberry Water Users over the weekend in the hopes that a final bill can be ready for Senate action early next week.The CUP re-authorization has had a tortuous path in Congress over the past year. From a $754 million re-authorization bill introduced a year ago by Rep. Wayne Owens, D-Utah, the bill has been chopped down to $45.4 million. That much spending authority, together with still-unspent money, should allow Bonneville unit construction to continue through fiscal year 1990.
Without at least the $45.4 million, CUP would have been trimmed back sharply in the budget that goes to Congress in January.