The ongoing drought in the West caught the attention of lawmakers this month, with the House and Senate each voting to reauthorize the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) and several House members proposing new legislation to ease the development of new water storage infrastructure.
Congress created NIDIS in 2006 to serve as a drought early warning system and to facilitate access to tools for assessing potential drought impacts. The program is due for reauthorization, however, and legislation approved by the House (H.R. 2431) would allow it to receive up to $13.5 million per year through 2018. A similar Senate-approved bill (S. 376) would provide the program with up to $12 million annually. Congressional negotiators will now work out a final agreement.
Meanwhile, on February 5 the House Water and Power Subcommittee held a hearing on a trio of bills to develop additional water storage capacity. One of the bills (H.R. 3980) would streamline federal, state and local approvals of dams and other surface-level storage facilities into one stop controlled by the Bureau of Reclamation, while another (H.R. 3981) would allow water users to pay in advance on contracts they have with the U.S. government – with the objective of accelerating the government’s collection of revenue that could be used for surface storage projects. The final bill, still in draft form, would amend the Secure Water Act to give the Interior Department $400 million annually to build surface water storage.
February also saw the House of Representatives approve H.R. 3964, the “Sacramento – San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act,” on a mostly party-line vote. Republican supporters said the bill would help resolve California’s water crisis, but Democratic opponentscountered that it would reverse important environmental protections. The bill appears unlikely to advance in the Senate.
President Obama got into the act as well, announcing on February 14 that his FY15 budget request will seek $1 billion for a new Climate Resilience Fund. The fund, which would have to be approved by Congress, would invest in research, help communities prepare for drought and other climate change impacts, and support new technologies and resilient infrastructure.