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Today, U.S. Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) released the following statement after the House Natural Resources Committee successfully passed the Congressman’s sponsored legislation, H.R. 1107, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Transparency Act, by unanimous consent:
“For over a century, BOR has transformed the West into a powerhouse that feeds the nation and the world while providing renewable, emissions-free energy for millions. Unfortunately, much of the agency’s now aging infrastructure was built more than 50 years ago and is in desperate need of repair. In order for BOR to effectively continue its mission, Congress needs to know what projects are most important and in need of repair so it can prioritize scarce resources to ensure their longevity. To date, this has not happened despite repeated requests from Congress and water users throughout the country.
“This commonsense, bipartisan legislation passed by the Committee today will ensure that a cost estimate and detailed list of major repairs for BOR facilities is disclosed to Congress so we can address the agency’s maintenance backlog as well as ensure an abundant supply of clean water and power for future generations. American taxpayers deserve accountability from their government and oversight on how it spends their money. Letting the sunlight in on this agency is long overdue.”
Just before passage of the bill Jared Huffman (D-CA), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans stated, “I wanted to just commend Mr. Gosar for his leadership on the Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act. I am pleased to be cosponsoring it. It’s a good example of how we can work across the aisle, even in times of tough water shortages in the West, to find ways to better stretch our funding and do good for our water infrastructure.” Click on the picture below to watch the video clip of Congressman Huffman’s comments.
Background
Congressman Gosar introduced the Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act on February 26, 2015.
On June 25, 2015, the House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing on the Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act. Click HERE to read more.
The full text of the Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act can be found HERE.
The Senate unanimously approved this bipartisan bill during the 113th Congress, with Senators Barrasso and Schatz ushering its passage. In June 2015 at a committee hearing on this bill, an agency official for the Bureau of Reclamation testified that H.R. 1107 is consistent with its draft “Infrastructure Investment Strategy”.
BOR provides essential services that benefit water and power users as well as our nation’s farmers. The agency delivers water to more than 30 million people and provides one in five Western farmers with water to irrigate their crops. BOR’s assets include more than 475 dams and dikes, and the agency is also responsible for the operations of 53 different hydroelectric power plants.
The House version of the Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act currently has 25 cosponsors including: Representatives Mark Amodei, Joe Barton, Matt Cartwright, Mike Coffman, Jim Costa, Jeff Denham, Trent Franks, John Garamendi, Chris Gibson, Crescent Hardy, Joe Heck, Jared Huffman, Ann Kirkpatrick, Ted Lieu, Cynthia Lummis, Tom McClintock, Martha McSally, Jeff Miller, Grace Napolitano, Steve Pearce, Mark Pocan, Matt Salmon, Kyrsten Sinema, Scott Tipton and Ryan Zinke.
The Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act would force the BOR to do an Infrastructure Needs Assessment Report every two years as part of the BOR’s existing Asset Management Plan reporting process. This Infrastructure Needs Assessment Report would be provided to Congress and available to the public on BOR’s webpage. The report would include:
1) An itemized list of major repair and rehabilitation needs at all federally managed BOR facilities and projects.
2) A cost estimate of the expenditures needed to address those repairs.
3) A categorical safety rating, using BOR’s own existing categorical system, of the importance of addressing each item.
Congressman Gosar additionally offered an amendment to this legislation to ensure that the bill’s two important sections regarding BOR’s reserved works and transferred works have similar requirements. This amendment specifically requires that the “major repair and rehabilitation needs” are included in the BOR’s Asset Management Reports mandated under the bill. The section for reserved works already has a similar provision, so this amendment simply ensures that reports for two kinds of infrastructure mirror each other.
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