SUPPLEMENTAL VIEWS OF SENATOR CHURCH
 I sponsored S. 14 and its predecessor bill in the previous Congress
for two reasons. First, efforts to rigorously enforce the existing Rec-
lamation Law, especially where recent interpretations are at variance
with long-established practice, threaten to work grave hardships upon
many westerners who are exactly the kind of independent family
farmers that the Reclamation program has always intended to en-
courage and assist. Second, the Reclamation program has been subject
to widespread criticism because the implementation of the acreage
limitation under the ambiguous existing statutory guidance has ap-
peared to many to be inconsistent with the spirit of the program.
 In S. 14 1 have tried to address both problems. This measure will give
relief to real family farmers in several important ways. It will abolish
the troublesome residency requirement which has not been enforced
for decades. I contend that requiring residency on or in the vicinity
of the landholding serves no useful purpose. The establishment of a
legal residency on an agricultural landholding does not guarantee that
one is a practical farmer nor does a residence more than 50 miles from
landholding in the modern-day West indicate that one is not operat-
ing the farm on a day-to-day basis.
 Further, S. 14 would increase the maximum landholding for which
a farmer might receive Reclamation water service to 1,280 irrigated
acres. That is a generous farm size, but it is consistent with the eco-
nomics of modern farming. There are, in fact, some types of specialized
farm equipment so expensive that they could only barely be supported
by an operation of this size.
 Of course, few Reclamation farms will actually reach this maximum
size, but relief from the long outdated "160-acre" limitation, and the
many administrative loopholes which have evolved to permit farmers
to survive under it, is long overdue.
 Beyond these two major provisions, S. 14 contains several other
adjustments, clarifications and amendments of existing law which will
resolve inequities and problems that have arisen in special circum-
stances over nearly 80 years of experience with the Reclamation Law
and its interpretation. These provisions are urgently needed by many
hundreds of farmers throughout the 17 Reclamation States, many
who farm very small acreages but for one or another reason have come
into conflict with narrow interpretations of existing law.
 On the other hand, S. 14 includes provisions which will make the en-
forcement of the Reclamation Law more certain and practical. It
clearly includes leased as well as owned lands within each landholding
which is limited to 1,280 acres. Long term leasing arrangements have
long been cited as the most notable of the evasions of the existing law,
and it is probably impossible for the Secretary to investigate the real
nature of such leases. Under the provisions of S. 14, the acreage limita-
tion applies to the lands for which a landowner receives water regard-
less of the nature of his tenure.