Snow Water Supply Forecasting Reauthorization Act of 2025

Floor Speech

I rise in enthusiastic support of H.R. 3857, the Snow Water Supply Forecasting Reauthorization Act, brought forward by my colleague and fellow freshman, Jeff Hurd.

This legislation, as he described, would extend the Bureau of Reclamation's Snow Water Supply Forecasting Program through 2031, ensuring that communities have accurate water supply forecasting.

This program plays a critical role in advancing new technologies, expanding snow monitoring areas, and improving the accuracy of water supply forecasts.

This work is extremely vital to supporting Western communities facing growing challenges of climate change, persistent drought, and growing demands from communities that are growing in our States.

Across the West, communities are experiencing changing precipitation patterns, diminished snowpack, earlier runoff, and changing water availability. I certainly look to the mountains, the Olympics and the Cascades, every time I drive around my district, using a very nontechnological approach to assessing the snowpack on the mountains.

Mr. Speaker, there are definitely scientists using much better tools, but this legislation authorizes even better tools to allow us to plan for our communities' safety and our access to clean water, agriculture, and a thriving economy.

Paired with the growing demand for water, these changes we have seen create uncertainty for water managers and users who rely on accurate data for planning.

By reauthorizing the Snow Water Supply Forecasting program, we ensure water managers and users have the information that they need to make informed decisions and support the continued collaboration between agencies and expanding snowpack data collection and forecasting capabilities.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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