House clears drought, wildfire package

July 29, 2022

The House approved a sprawling package of bills aimed at addressing worsening droughts and wildfires in the West on a 218-199 vote Friday evening.

The details: The Wildfire Response and Drought Resiliency Act, H.R. 5118 (117), compiles four dozen individual measures, including those to boost wildland firefighter pay and benefits, spell out which types of forest management projects are subject to federal environmental review and create strike teams to swiftly complete those reviews.

On the drought side, it includes a provision to send $500 million to the Interior Department “to use available legal authorities” to prop up water levels at the two main reservoirs on the Colorado River. The river system is in crisis, with levels at Lake Mead and Lake Powell plummeting to levels not seen since they were filled, and the Bureau of Reclamation projecting that, without drastic action to cut water consumption, water levels could soon drop below the hydropower heads at Glen Canyon Dam.

The package also includes California Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman’s FUTURE Western Water Infrastructure and Drought Resiliency Act (H.R. 3404 (117)), with provisions on infrastructure, data, ecosystem restoration and workforce development.

And it includes legislation from New Mexico’s congressional delegation dubbed the “aquabus,” with bills on everything from water data management to water infrastructure and water conservation for tribes and Pueblos.

Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Colo.), the bill's lead sponsor, said the package "meets the moment in the West."

"Across America, the impacts of climate change continue to worsen. And in this new normal, historic drought and record-setting wildfires have become all too common," he said at a press conference on Thursday.

What's next: The package as a whole is unlikely to be taken up by the Senate, although discrete issues such as programs within the Colorado River basin could see action in the upper chamber.


By:  Annie Snider
Source: Politico Pro