Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Republican Rob Bishop (R-Utah) issued the following statement on the passage of the Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan Authorization Act.   

“With the states’ work and today’s vote, we have passed a solution that saves a river that serves forty million people, irrigates vast amounts of farmland, and encourages clean, emissions-free hydropower.  I thank the Colorado Basin States for their leadership in negotiating and finalizing this plan, and Chairman Grijalva and colleagues in the House for moving quickly on this legislation. It is our hope the Senate will act quickly and send this bill to the President’s desk.”

Background:

The Colorado River Drought Contingency Plan is a historic agreement between the seven upper and lower Colorado River Basin states on voluntary water allocation reductions in the event the two major reservoirs on the system, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, dip below specific water elevation levels. On March 19, 2019, Colorado River Basin States transmitted legislative language to Congress to allow the Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation to implement the plan.

Bill text can be found HERE.