A group of Democratic senators from the three Lower Colorado Basin states, including Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, are pressing the Department of the Interior to immediately lift its freeze on Inflation Reduction Act funding for critical water conservation efforts.
The pause, stemming from a Trump administration executive order halting all disbursements from the Act, has put billions of dollars in water management resources at risk.
Joining Kelly in signing a letter to the Interior Department were Senators Alex Padilla (D-CA), Adam Schiff (D-CA), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).
Their message: the funding freeze jeopardizes the stability of the Colorado River Basin, which provides water for 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland across seven states.
The Lower Colorado River System Conservation and Efficiency Program, a key recipient of Inflation Reduction Act funds, has already helped raise Lake Mead’s elevation by 15 feet through water conservation efforts. Plans for 2025 were projected to conserve an additional 734,000 acre-feet of water, further stabilizing the river system.
“This program has been instrumental in increasing water conservation, improving efficiency, and preventing dangerously low reservoir levels that threaten water deliveries and power production,” the Senators wrote.
They stressed that without immediate action, efforts to sustain the river’s future and uphold multistate agreements could be undermined.
The Senators also urged the Interior Department to ensure that budget cuts from the Office of Personnel Management’s recent directive do not further weaken the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees critical water management in the West.
Without sufficient staffing and funding, the already fragile Colorado River system could face serious setbacks, they warned.
