Corporations or other multiple ownerships holding lands receiving
project water whose owners are not in an immediate family relation-
ship would be given a 5-year transition period within which to meet
requirements, to transfer ownership to eligible program participants,
or to cease receiving project water.
 In addition, we recommend that the residency requirement be aug-
mented by requiring owners and lessees to be substantially involved
in the farming operation. Criteria and standards for involvement
would be developed later in regulations. Such criteria would be more
stringent than the IRS definition under which periodic vists suffice
for "involvement."
 ACREAGE LIMITATIONS
 The Department-proposed amendments respecting the acreage lim-
itation (Section 6 of our amendments) agree in principle with the posi-
iton in S. 14 to expand the acreage limitation for lands held by one
owner eligible to receive project water. S. 14 would allow flat 1280
acres (plus equivalency where authorized) owned or leased per quali-
fied participant. The Department would allow a resident adult to
receive project water on 320 acres of owned land with an additional
allowance for 160 acres of leased land, for a total of 480 acres (plus
equivalency where authorized). In the alternative, as much as 480
acres could be leased by one individual receiving project water; any
combination of ownership and leasing totaling 480 acres per individual
provided ownership does not exceed 320 acres, would be permitted.
Two adult individuals could receive project water on 640 acres of land
jointly owned, or 960 acres of land jointly owned and leased. So a
husband and wife, or two unrelated adult individuals could receive
water on as much as 960 acres.
 However, multiple family ownerships, such as family corporations,
joint tenancies, partnerships or trusts, where owners are resident
adults in an immediate family relation, could hold up to 960 acres so
long as no more than 480 acres is owned and leased on behalf of any
one resident adult owner. No additional entitlement for any form of
ownership would be allowed for dependent children.
 New acreage limitations would apply immediately to new purchases
of land, excess or non-excess. Eligible individuals having an entitle-
ment under current law that exceeds the limt applicable under the
new bill (for instance families with a large number of dependent
children) would be allowed to keep their current entitlement. New
limitations would apply on the first transfer of title or shares.
 Lands currently under recordable contract would continue to receive
water for the duration of the contract.
 We note a feature contained in Section 3 (d) of S. 14 which would
allow the Secretary to limit the number of landholdings that may be
managed for a qualified recipient by another person. We believe this
concept has merit but that we can achieve the same purpose through
our definition of leasing, which includes management.
 We believe our approach strikes a desirable balance between the sev-
eral important objectives: maintaining the small owner-operated
farm; providing sufficient flexibility to allow for reasonable growth in
owner-operated farms; allowing for the considerable variations in the
farm economy; recognizing developments in farming technique and