Chat with Chic, undated

By United States Senator Chic Hecht Some congressional critics have complained that because this is an election year, little of substance is expected to be enacted on Capitol Hill. In fact, with the recesses this summer for the Democratic and Republican conventions and with 435 members of the House eager to return home and campaign for reelection, 1984 probably will not be a banner year for earth-shaking legislation. A major exception, however, is Senate Bill 268 which I introduced and which now has been approved by both Houses of Congress and sent to President Reagan for signature. The so-called "Hoover Dam Bill" began its way through Congress rather quietly, but became the target of a major filibuster launched by Howard Metzenbaum, a crafty Democrat from Ohio. It got kind of windy during his talk-a-thon and thank heavens I was able to muster support from a number of my colleagues to cut off Metzeribaum's filibuster and obtain final passage of this critically-important piece of legislation by a 64-34 margin. Essentially my bill extends for 30 years the current contract by which the government sells hydroelectric power at Hoover dam, one of America's first major hydro facilities. The bill also authorizes $77 million to up-grade the dam, increase its generating capacity by one-third and install much-needed safety improvements. Cost of Improvements, like the cost of the dam itself, will be financed through the sale of bonds paid for by electric rate payers, not tax payers! This long-standing policy of having power users pay for federal hydroelectric dams and their improvements has worked well. But the senator from Ohio would scrap it in order to make some money for Uncle Sam and thus help his own constituents who have never spent a dime on Hoover dam. The issue boiled down to this: Should the government continue to sell power at cost, as it does at all its other hydroelectric dams throughout the United States, or switch to market rates? The power from Hoover is only one source of energy that is blended into the monthly bill. The bill Nevadans pay is just about the same as the national average. If Hoover suddenly began charging market rates, your electric bill would be astronomical. Metzenbaum argued that by selling federal power to the highest bidder, we could help reduce the deficit which many of us believe is out of control because of big spending and taxing policies which the Ohio senator has consistently supported. M O R E "Chat with Chic" Column Page two The federal government never has tried to make a profit on hydroelectric dams. Rather, our policy has been to provide abundant water, electricity and flood control for those who use and pay for it. Fortunately, enough other senators realized that if Uncle Sam were to follow this drastic policy change, toll booths might soon spring up on our interstate highway system and at the same time rates would be jumping drastically at every other federal hydroelectric facility in the country. If Howard Metzenbaum really is serious about reducing the federal deficit he could begin by voting to cut wasteful government spending. Or, he might join me in cosponsoring an amendment to require a balanced budget. The Ohio senator definitely should not try to balance the budget on the backs of 15,000,000 electric consumers living in Nevada and in a wide area of the Southwest.