Today, the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries held a legislative hearing on four bills improving access to public waters, addressing maintenance needs of our aging irrigation infrastructure, reauthorizing important groundwater monitoring programs and ensuring federal power agencies will be able to uphold their statutory obligations. Subcommittee Chairman Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.) released the following statement in response:

"The four water bills considered by the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries today are essential to ensuring that Americans have access to up-to-date water resource management and infrastructure and make it easier for people to enjoy our public waters. I am grateful to my colleagues on the Subcommittee for their hard work on these important bills, and I look forward to working with them to get them passed through the House of Representatives."

Background

H.R. 4219, the Southwestern Power Administration Fund Establishment Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.), would authorize the Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA) to establish a self-financing model, that includes a revolving Department of the Treasury fund, to conduct their operations. This would empower SWPA to improve long-term financial planning and create funding certainty for customers to address replacement power and infrastructure needs.

H.R. 6107, the Urban Canal Modernization Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), would categorize maintenance work on urban canals of concern and allow the Bureau of Reclamation to assist in covering project costs. 

H.R. 6127, the Modernizing Access to Our Public (MAP) Waters Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), would help enhance access to the nation’s outdoor recreational opportunities by digitizing and standardizing mapping information, such as access points and permissible uses, of federal waters.

H.R. 5770, the Water Data Improvement Act, introduced by U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), would reauthorize the Federal Priority Streamgage Program and the National Groundwater Resources Monitoring Program administered by the U.S. Geological Survey through fiscal year 2028 at existing funding levels.