Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss my amendment No. 3888. I am proud to join my colleagues from Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado to offer this bipartisan amendment. Our three States are signatories to the Republican River Compact, which allocates the water resources from the Republican River Basin as it travels across our States.

Through this allocation process, our States work closely with the Republican River Compact Administration and the Bureau of Reclamation to help ensure the most efficient utilization of our waters as they head to families and businesses across the region. In Nebraska we value clean water. Our citizens go to great lengths to preserve and protect these resources.

However, in recent years, the Bureau of Reclamation has violated administrative orders issued by Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado with no justification for their actions. This lack of accountability from the BOR is costing money. It is limiting citizens' access to precious water resources.

Our bipartisan amendment that is before us would halt funding for the BOR when it violates State orders. Federal law already requires the BOR to comply with the States through interstate compacts. Our amendment would hold this agency accountable for its actions. Our States have a right to manage their own water resources for the benefit of compact compliance.

But through its action, the BOR has effectively altered those compacts. This agency was not created to operate unilaterally and exert veto power over the decisions States make to comply with compacts. Our amendment will ensure that Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas retain control of their waters. It will protect other States that have these interstate compacts from the consequential actions of an unaccountable Federal agency.

Nebraska and its neighbors in Kansas and Colorado are good stewards of natural resources. We protect our water. We protect it at the State and the local levels. These States should be free to preserve their resources without unjustified intervention by the Federal Government. I urge all of my colleagues to consider this amendment, to consider the impact of a Federal agency overreaching and violating the rights of States to determine how to control, how to manage, how to work together, and how to work within compacts in order to meet the obligations they have.
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