Reclamation Law: Changes to Excess Land Sales Will Generate Millions in FederalRevenues

摘要

The availability of federal irrigation water to western farmland--due to thegovernment's construction of water resources projects in the west--increases the land's value. When excess land is sold, this added value becomes a profit that is not returned to the federal government. Under existing reclamation law, about 121,000 acres of excess land under recordable contracts will be sold within the next few years, which could generate as much as $100 million in profits. Also other acres of excess land not under recordable contracts could be sold in future years for additional profits. Because reclamation law provides the opportunity for profiting from excess land sales, the law needs to be changed so that the federal government obtains the profit created by the construction of the federal water resources projects.