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Title 43, Public LandsRelease 119-110

§485b–1 Deferment of Installments Under Repayment Contracts; Determination of Undue Burden; Conditions; Supplemental Contract; Report to Congress

Title 43 › CHAPTER 12 — RECLAMATION AND IRRIGATION OF LANDS BY FEDERAL GOVERNMENT › SUBCHAPTER X — PAYMENT OF CONSTRUCTION CHARGES › § 485b–1

Last updated Sep 23, 2026|Official source

Summary

The Secretary can keep changing repayment contracts for construction charges through December 31, 1960. The Secretary may delay part of a payment when needed to make the amount one water users can probably pay. The Secretary must first find that paying on the due date would cause serious hardship, and may attach reasonable conditions about operating and maintaining the project. If a delay affects payments due more than twelve months after the delay is made, the Secretary must use a formal supplemental contract. That contract must say it is only a short-term fix and not set the final terms for any later change. Any later change must be approved by Congress unless it does not lengthen the repayment period beyond the law, does not reduce the total amount owed, and is not worse for the Government. The Secretary must report all delays to Congress.

Full Legal Text

Title 43, §485b–1

Public Lands, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)The authority granted in section 485b of this title for modification of existing repayment contracts or other forms of obligations to pay construction charges shall continue through December 31, 1960.
(b)The Secretary is authorized, subject to the provisions of this subsection to defer the time for the payment of such part of any installments of construction charges under any repayment contract or other form of obligation as he deems necessary to adjust such installments to amounts within the probable ability of the water users to pay. Any such deferment shall be effected only after findings by the Secretary that the installments under consideration probably cannot be paid on their due date without undue burden on the water users, considering the various factors which in the Secretary’s judgment bear on the ability of the water users so to pay. The Secretary may effect the deferments hereunder subject to such conditions and provisions relating to the operation and maintenance of the project involved as he deems to be in the interest of the United States. If, however, any deferments would affect installments to accrue more than twelve months after the action of deferment, they shall be effected only by a formal supplemental contract. Such a contract shall provide by its terms that, it being only an interim solution of the repayment problems dealt with therein, its terms are not, in themselves, to be construed as a criterion of the terms of any amendatory contract that may be negotiated and that any such amendatory contract must be approved by the Congress unless it does not lengthen the repayment period for the project in question beyond that permitted by the laws applicable to that project, involves no reduction in the total amount payable by the water users, and is not in other respects less advantageous to the Government than the existing contract arrangements. The Secretary shall report to the Congress all deferments granted under this subsection.

Legislative History

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

1959—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 86–308 made permanent the Secretary’s authority to grant deferments in payment of installments of

Construction

charges under repayment contracts. 1958—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 85–611 substituted “section 485b” for “section 485b and 485c”. 1945—Subsec. (a). Act Apr. 24, 1945, extended authority for modification of existing repayment contracts or other forms of obligations to pay

Construction

charges through Dec. 31, 1950, or Dec. 31 of the fifth full calendar year after the cessation of hostilities of World War II, as determined by proclamation of the President or concurrent resolution of Congress, whichever period was the longer. Subsec. (b). Act Apr. 24, 1945, authorized Secretary, subject to provisions of this subsection, to defer the time for the payment of such part of any installments of

Construction

charges under any repayment contract or other form of obligation that are due and unpaid as of Apr. 24, 1945, or which would become due prior to the expiration of authority under subsec. (a).

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Applicability to Other Irrigation Projects Pub. L. 86–308, § 3, Sept. 21, 1959, 73 Stat. 585, provided that: “The provisions of section 17, subsection (b), of the Reclamation Project Act of 1939 [subsec. (b) of this section], as amended by section 1 of this Act, shall apply to any project within the administrative jurisdiction of the Bureau of Reclamation to which, if it had been constructed as a project under the Federal reclamation laws (Act of June 17, 1902, 32 Stat. 383) and Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto [see

Short Title

note set out under section 371 of this title]), these provisions would be applicable.”

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

43 U.S.C. § 485b–1

Title 43, Public Lands

Last Updated

Sep 23, 2026

Release point: 119-110