The Water Resources Research Act of 1964 (WRRA) undertook "... a coordinated scientific research program in water...", which constitutes "... the greatest resource problem facing the West and the Nation ..."^{[citation needed]} The WRRA's principal result was establishment of the National Institutes for Water Resources.

One of the earliest research grants of the WRRA went to eventual Nobel Memorial Prize-laureate Elinor Ostrom at the beginning of her career.^{[citation needed]}

• Water Resources Research Act, as amended in 2006
• Statement of President Lyndon B. Johnston on the occasion of the approval of the Water Resources Research Act of 1964, July 17, 1964