[Senate Report 114-128]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
Calendar No. 208
114th Congress } { Report
SENATE
1st Session } { 114-128
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BUREAU OF RECLAMATION TRANSPARENCY ACT
_______
September 9, 2015.--Ordered to be printed
_______
Ms. Murkowski, from the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany S. 593]
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to which was
referred the bill (S. 593) to require the Secretary of the
Interior to submit to Congress a report on the efforts of the
Bureau of Reclamation to manage its infrastructure assets,
having considered the same, reports favorably thereon with
amendments and recommends that the bill, as amended, do pass.
The amendments are as follows:
1. On page 8, line 20, strike ``the condition of, and
planned maintenance for,'' and insert ``major repair and
rehabilitation needs for''.
2. On page 9, line 4, insert ``for major repair and
rehabilitation needs'' after ``system''.
PURPOSE
The purpose of S. 593 is to require the Secretary of the
Interior to submit to Congress a report on the efforts of the
Bureau of Reclamation to manage its infrastructure assets.
BACKGROUND AND NEED
Founded in 1902, the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) is
the largest wholesaler of water in the United States and
supports the design, construction, and management of water
infrastructure in 17 Western states, including dams, canals,
irrigation, hydropower, recreation, and water supply
infrastructure. Reclamation's inventory includes 476 dams and
dikes, creating 337 reservoirs with a total storage capacity of
245 million acre-per-feet of water. Much of Reclamation's
infrastructure was constructed more than 50 years ago and the
Department of the Interior faces many challenges in maintaining
this aging infrastructure.
Reclamation prepares an annual ``Asset Management Plan,''
which describes current business practices and performance
metrics, but does not provide information at the project level.
S. 593 seeks to expand on the information provided by the Asset
Management Plan by requiring a detailed assessment of major
repair and rehabilitation needs at the project level for all
Reclamation sites. In order to better understand the state of
Reclamation's infrastructure, the bill requires a report to
Congress and standardized and streamlined asset data.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
S. 1800, a nearly identical bill to S. 593 in the 114th
Congress, was introduced by Senators Barrasso and Schatz in the
113th Congress. The Subcommittee on Water and Power held a
hearing on S. 1800 on February 27, 2014 (S. Hrg. 113-284). The
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources favorably reported S.
1800, with an amendment in the nature of a substitute, on June
18, 2014 (S. Rept. 113-226). The Senate agreed to the committee
substitute as amended and passed S. 1800 on December 16, 2014.
S. 593 was introduced by Senators Barrasso and Schatz on
February 26, 2015. The Subcommittee on Water and Power held a
legislative hearing on S. 593 on June 18, 2015.
The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources met in open
business session on July 30, 2015, and ordered S. 593 favorably
reported as amended.
COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in an
open business session on July 30, 2015, by a majority voice
vote of a quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass S.
593, if amended as described herein.
COMMITTEE AMENDMENTS
During the consideration of S. 593, the Committee adopted
two technical and clarifying amendments.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
Section 1 provides the short title.
Section 2 describes the findings.
Section 3 provides definitions for the Act.
Section 4 directs the Secretary of the Interior to submit
an Asset Management Report to Congress within two years of the
Act's enactment, and specifies that the report shall describe
Reclamation's efforts to maintain in a reliable manner all of
its reserved works, such as buildings, structures, facilities,
or equipment, for which maintenance and operations are
performed. The report must further include a detailed
assessment of the major repair and rehabilitation needs for all
reserved works and, to the extent practicable, an itemized list
of major repair and rehabilitation needs of individual projects
at Reclamation facilities, including a cost estimate to
complete each project, and a categorical rating assignment in
order to inform the annual agency budgeting process. The report
shall be made publicly available with the exclusion of
classified information. A classified version of the report
shall be made available to the Congressional committees of
jurisdiction. Further directs that the Asset Management Report
be updated biennially.
Section 5 directs the Secretary to coordinate with those
non-federal entities responsible for the operation and
maintenance of Reclamation facilities, known as transferred
works, in developing reporting requirements for needed major
repair and rehabilitation work for those projects similar to
the reporting requirements established in section 4.
Section 6 amends section 1631(d)(1) of the Reclamation
Projects Authorization and Adjustment Act of 1992 to reduce by
$2 million the maximum amount of the Federal cost share for a
project authorized pursuant to section 1617 of that Act in
order to provide an authorization offset for anticipated costs
associated with implementation of the legislation.
COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS
The following estimate of the costs of this measure has
been provided by the Congressional Budget Office:
S. 593--Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act
S. 593 would require the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to
assess the maintenance needs of its facilities, develop a
ranking system to prioritize the rehabilitation needs of
facilities that it operates, and work with nonfederal partners
that have taken over the operation of certain other facilities
to develop similar systems for those facilities that need
rehabilitation. Under current law, BOR gathers data on its
facilities, analyzes the data, and makes the results of its
analysis available to the Congress and the public through its
budget documents and various other reports throughout the year.
Under the bill, BOR would need to consolidate those results
into one report every two years including the ranking
information and the estimated costs of necessary rehabilitation
projects. Based on information from BOR, and assuming
appropriation of the necessary amounts, CBO estimates that
implementing those provisions would cost $2 million over the
2016-2020 period.
S. 593 also would reduce the authorization level for the
Central Valley Water Recycling Project in Salt Lake County,
Utah, by $2 million. Under current law, that project is
authorized to receive up to $20 million in federal funding for
construction costs. Under the bill, the ceiling would be
reduced to $18 million.
On that basis, CBO estimates that implementing the
legislation would have an insignificant net effect on spending
over the 2016-2020 period, assuming appropriation action
consistent with the bill. Enacting S. 593 would not affect
direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go
procedures do not apply.
S. 593 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. Any
costs incurred by public entities to comply with the bill's
reporting requirements would result from participating in a
voluntary federal program.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Aurora Swanson.
The estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy
Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
REGULATORY IMPACT EVALUATION
In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following
evaluation of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in
carrying out the bill.
The bill is not a regulatory measure in the sense of
imposing Government-established standards or significant
economic responsibilities on private individuals and
businesses.
No personal information would be collected in administering
the program. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal
privacy.
Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from the
enactment of this bill, with the exception of reporting
requirements associated with the operation and maintenance of
transferred works.
CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED SPENDING
The bill, as reported, does not contain any congressionally
directed spending items, limited tax benefits, or limited
tariff benefits as defined in rule XLIV of the Standing Rules
of the Senate.
EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS
The testimony provided by the Bureau of Reclamation at the
June 18, 2015, Water and Power Subcommittee hearing on S. 593
follows:
Statement of Dionne Thompson, Deputy Commissioner for External and
Intergovernmental Affairs, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of the
Interior
Chairman Lee and members of the Subcommittee, I am Dionne
Thompson, Deputy Commissioner for External and
Intergovernmental Affairs at the Bureau of Reclamation
(Reclamation). I am pleased to provide the views of the
Department of the Interior (Department) on S. 593, the Bureau
of Reclamation Transparency Act. The Department supports S.
593.
S. 593 is a reintroduced version of bipartisan legislation
previously introduced by Senators Barrasso and Schatz during
the 113th Congress. The prior bill was numbered S. 1800, was
also titled the Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act, and
Reclamation testified on the bill in February of 2014.
Reclamation appreciates the constructive work conducted with
the sponsor's offices and this Subcommittee to develop a number
of specific changes to the bill consistent with our 2014
testimony. These changes were all incorporated into the current
version of S. 593. Reclamation recognizes the value in
obtaining additional information on the status of our
infrastructure. The bill is consistent with a draft
Infrastructure Investment Strategy and process Reclamation has
initiated proactively, which I will briefly summarize here.
For the past year, Reclamation has been developing a draft
Infrastructure Investment Strategy (Strategy) for assessing and
reporting on infrastructure investment needs for Reclamation's
approximately 4,000 unique assets. The Strategy builds upon
Reclamation's ongoing asset management planning and budget
processes, including the existing major rehabilitation and
replacements (MR&R) database. Much of the initial focus of this
Strategy has been on ``reserved works''; facilities
constructed, owned, and operated by Reclamation, as opposed to
``transferred works'', which are those facilities that were
built and are owned by Reclamation, but which are operated and
maintained by water and power customers pursuant to contracts.
Consistent with the directives in S. 593, Reclamation's
Strategy process will focus on: improving data collection,
analysis, and reporting on the condition of Reclamation-owned
infrastructure; categorizing potential investments according to
relative importance and urgency; and collaboration with water
and power customers in planning for these investments.
Based on arrangements originating with Section 6 of the
Reclamation Act of 1902, over two-thirds of Reclamation's
facilities are transferred works, managed by non-federal
project beneficiaries. These operating entities provide
valuable input to the formulation of Reclamation's annual asset
management activities. At present, Reclamation's annual budget
requests include estimates of the appropriated funds needed for
maintenance conducted by Reclamation at its facilities. The
estimates in the budget request do not include the amounts
funded by non-federal beneficiaries for their maintenance of
Reclamation facilities. Reclamation's budget documents,
delivered to Congress annually and posted online, are developed
over a multi-step 18-month process that begins at the field
office level where managers consider the condition of the
facilities under their jurisdiction, safety considerations
associated with facilities' condition, and--very importantly--
the ability of operating partners to fund the work identified
pursuant to the terms of their contract and requirements of
Reclamation Law. Investments in MR&R are analyzed and
prioritized at the field, regional, and bureau levels based on
criteria such as: Engineering Need; Risks and Consequences of
Failure; Efficiency Opportunities; Financial Feasibility; and
availability of Non-Federal Cost Share.
During this process, Reclamation categorizes the
information that will go into its budget requests using its
Programmatic Budget Structure (PBS). The PBS uses two of its
five primary categories to show the budget request for
Operations and Maintenance (O&M) activities: 1. Facility
Operations, and 2. Facility Maintenance and Rehabilitation. It
should be noted that in addition to the appropriated funds in
these two categories, a substantial portion of O&M activities
is paid for directly by water and power users with their own
funds or project revenues.
The Facility Operations category includes items and
activities that are necessary to operate Reclamation facilities
to produce authorized project benefits for water supplies,
power, flood control, fish and wildlife, and recreation. This
category includes not only facility operations by Reclamation
at reserved works, but also Reclamation's oversight of the
operations of facilities performed by water user entities at
transferred works. Facility Operations includes all routine or
preventive maintenance activities. Routine maintenance is
defined as recurring daily, weekly, monthly, or annually, and
most tasks performed by Reclamation maintenance staff are
included in this category. Also included in this category are
routine safety and occupational health items, including those
for workplace safety inspection and hazard abatement. The
amount budgeted under this category for each facility is the
funding necessary to perform routine O&M activities. On an
annual basis, each region, along with centralized program
management staff, determines the appropriate budget level to
support staffing and other resources necessary at each facility
for continued operations to deliver authorized project
benefits.
The second category, Facility Maintenance and
Rehabilitation, addresses the needs over and above the
resources in Facility Operations, and corresponds roughly to
the concept of MR&R. The Facility Maintenance and
Rehabilitation category includes major and non-routine
replacements and extraordinary maintenance of existing
infrastructure. This category also includes activities to
review and conduct condition assessments (facility O&M and dam
safety inspections), as well as funding necessary for the
correction of dam safety deficiencies (dam safety
modifications), the implementation of security upgrades, and
building seismic safety retrofits. Consequently, most of the
budgeted items under this category are related to site-specific
facility needs.
After Reclamation's field offices identify MR&R activities
in their jurisdiction that require appropriated funds, they are
evaluated at the regional level where these are compared to the
needs and priorities of other activities and facilities in that
region. There are five regions within Reclamation. The regions'
PBS allotments for Facility Maintenance and Rehabilitation each
year are then evaluated at the next level of internal review,
with Reclamation's Budget Review Committee (BRC) process. A
given year's BRC is working in advance of a budget request two
years into the future, and is comprised of senior management
from across the agency, providing the maximum breadth of
relevant experience and program knowledge. Each region presents
its priorities to the BRC, which evaluates the MR&R needs and
priorities against those of other regions in order to ensure
that Facility Maintenance and Rehabilitation activities reflect
Reclamation's greatest overall need and agency priorities. No
urgent maintenance issues necessary to the safe operation of a
facility are deferred in the budgeting or facility review
processes. The end result is a budget request that has been
prioritized and vetted across the organization, concurrent with
input from the Department and Reclamation leadership.
For the purpose of reporting asset condition to the Federal
Real Property Profile to meet requirements of the Executive
order 13327, ``Federal Real Property Management,'' and to
better understand upcoming needs, Reclamation develops and
annually updates estimates of MR&R needs. This effort, which
informs the annual budget process, represents an outlook of
Reclamation's best estimate of reported deferred maintenance,
and identified extraordinary maintenance, dam safety
modifications, repairs, rehabilitation, and replacement
activities at a point in time looking forward five years,
regardless of funding source, for all assets. The estimated
total in 2012 amounted to $2.5 billion over five years (fiscal
years 2013-2017).\1\ It is important to note that a substantial
portion of projected needs to address the rehabilitation of
aging infrastructure (roughly $1.2 billion of the $2.5 billion
estimate) will be financed directly by our water and power
customers. Cost estimates associated with these identified
needs range from ``preliminary'' to ``feasibility'' level, and
should not be collectively assumed to be at one particular
uniform level of detail. Variability in the MR&R estimates from
year to year may be the result of additional information
received from the estimating source (i.e., Reclamation field
offices and non-federal operating entities), changes in field
conditions, further evaluations conducted, and work priorities,
thus impacting the inclusion or deletion of specific identified
needs within a particular year, or from year to year.
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\1\www.usbr.gov/assetmanagement/Asset%20Inventory/
FY%202012%20Reclamation%20 Asset%20Management%20Plan.pdf.
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As stated in prior testimony before this Subcommittee, one
of the main challenges Reclamation faces in securing funding
for the identified near-term needs as well as longer-term MR&R
needs is the varying economic strength of our operating
partners. Given the requirement under Reclamation Law for the
repayment of maintenance costs either in the year incurred or
over time, Reclamation must work in collaboration with our
water and power partners that must repay these investments. For
some of these partners, the cost-share requirements associated
with MR&R work are simply beyond their financial capabilities.
Like any organization tasked with constructing, operating, and
maintaining a wide portfolio of assets, Reclamation has to
prioritize its actions to maximize the benefits derived from
its investment of both federal and non-federal funds. Given the
substantial economic and financial interest of Reclamation's
non-federal partners, the development of cost estimates for
maintenance requirements on reserved and transferred works is
both collaborative and dynamic. We acknowledge there are
tradeoffs associated with decisions to fund one identified need
versus another, but Reclamation's annual budget request
reflects our best effort to balance those constantly evolving
needs associated with all elements of our mission.
The requirements of S. 593 would complement the processes
described above, and the bill makes allowance for the valuable
input from operating partners that is central to Reclamation's
asset management program.
This concludes my written statement. I am pleased to answer
questions at the appropriate time.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that no
changes in existing law are made by the bill as ordered
reported.