Infrastructure agreement reached

The White House and a bipartisan group of senators reached an agreement on infrastructure stimulus legislation, with the Senate voting 67-32 on July 28 to move forward with the deal, which includes significant support for Western water infrastructure.

As reported by the Family Farm Alliance, the deal includes $550 billion in new federal investments in a wide array of infrastructure categories, including the Western water and forestry infrastructure provisions found in the Energy Infrastructure Act recently reported out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. That bill included $8.3 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation, including $3.2 billion for aging infrastructure, $1.15 billion for new storage and conveyance, $100 million for small scale storage projects, $250 million for ecosystem restoration, $100 million for multibenefit watershed projects and $400 million for WaterSMART, including $100 million for natural infrastructure projects.

Those provisions closely match the infrastructure package advanced by a Western water coalition that collectively represents thousands of Western farmers, ranchers, water providers, businesses and communities who help provide $120 billion of agricultural production on millions of acres of productive land. The coalition is led by a steering committee comprised of the Family Farm Alliance, Association of California Water Agencies, California Farm Bureau, National Water Resources Association and Western Growers. The coalition also represents many of the local and regional public water agencies that supply water to over 75 million Western urban, suburban and rural residents.

The deal and eventual legislation faces challenges moving forward, with critics from both parties vocalizing their concerns within hours of the announcement.