On Thursday, the House Natural Resources Committee passed Congressman Paul Gosar’s legislation, H.R. 1107, the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) Transparency Act, by unanimous consent. Gosar introduced the Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act on February 26, 2015.
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.
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.
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.”
“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,” stated Gosar.
“This commonsense, bipartisan legislation passed by the Committee 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,” concluded Gosar.