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Arbuckle Project Maintenance Complex and District Office Conveyance Act of 2016

Floor Speech

By: Tom Cole
By: Tom Cole
Date: Dec. 6, 2016
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Federal, State and Local Relations Natural Resources

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Mr. COLE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my good friend for yielding, and I certainly want to thank him for moving this expeditiously through his committee and onto the floor. I want to associate myself with his remarks about the need for reform because this is a fairly routine matter.

I rise in support of H.R. 1219, the Arbuckle Project Maintenance Complex and District Office Conveyance Act. This bill is a straightforward land conveyance, which has both Federal and local support.

H.R. 1219 would authorize the Secretary of the Interior to convey certain lands and buildings of the Arbuckle Project, in Murray County, Oklahoma, to the Arbuckle Master Conservancy District.

In 1962, Congress authorized the payment of reimbursable costs for construction, operation, and maintenance of the Bureau of Reclamation's Arbuckle Master Conservancy District in south-central Oklahoma. The district completed repayment of the capital costs of the project in September of 2012.

In accordance with the Bureau of Reclamation's policy framework for title transfer, in December 2014, the Bureau of Reclamation and the district executed an agreement to transfer, in fee title, certain facilities that could be more efficiently and effectively managed at the local level.

The title transfer involves approximately 2.83 acres of land. On this land is a small house, associated structures, and the conservancy district's headquarters office building. The House and property are used to accommodate a district employee who maintains and inspects the dam and the pumping facilities. The headquarters office building is the base of operation for the district.

This bill also divests the Federal Government of its responsibility and liability associated with the district's facilities. Reclamation and the district have worked cooperatively and successfully to address all of the elements necessary to bring this legislation forward and make this transfer proceed as smoothly as possible.
I am pleased that this bill is an agreement with which both the Federal and local interests are satisfied.

I want to urge all of my colleagues to support this legislation.
Again, I want to thank the chairman for his help in this matter.

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