©2025 League of Conservation Voters
1976 Scorecard Vote
117
279
33
Issues
Irrigable Land Reclamation (HR 13101). The vote is on passage of Representative Bizz Johnson’s bill to allow the Bureau of Reclamation to relax the 160 acre maximum limit (320 acre limit for husband and wife) on farms receiving federally subsidized water for lands below Class I standards. (Class I lands are suitable for all types of crops.) The Reclamation Lands Act of 1902 was intended to provide federally subsidized water to farms 160 acres or less. Environmentalists support this policy because it encourages family farmers who are more concerned about wise stewardship of the land, less oriented to mono-culture and less dependent on pesticides and herbicides than large agribusiness corporations. Johnson’s bill would substantially weaken the Reclamation Act without proper safeguards, and it would broaden the authority of the Bureau of Reclamation, which has failed to enforce existing laws. September 21, 1976. Rejected 118-279. “NO” is the correct vote.
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