[House Report 115-156]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
115th Congress } { Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
1st Session } { 115-156
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BUREAU OF RECLAMATION TRANSPARENCY ACT
_______
June 2, 2017.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Bishop of Utah, from the Committee on Natural Resources, submitted
the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany H.R. 660]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred
the bill (H.R. 660) 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, report favorably thereon without amendment
and recommend that the bill do pass.
PURPOSE OF THE BILL
The purpose of H.R. 660 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 FOR LEGISLATION
The goal of H.R. 660 is to provide Congress, States,
localities, and water and power users with a better
understanding of the estimated cost of repairs at Bureau of
Reclamation (Reclamation) facilities.
According to the agency, Reclamation is the nation's
largest wholesale water supplier, providing 1 out of 5 (or
140,000) Western farmers with irrigation water for 10 million
farmland acres that produce 60 percent of the nation's
vegetables and one quarter of its fresh fruit and nut crops. It
also delivers 10 trillion gallons of water to more than 31
million people annually and is the second largest domestic
producer of hydropower. Reclamation's assets include 475 dams
and 53 hydroelectric power plants. With much of this
infrastructure built over 50 years ago, maintaining these
assets is critical for safety and economic security. Despite
this need, some believe that Reclamation has not been
transparent in providing the extent of its maintenance backlog.
Reclamation operates a Facility Maintenance and
Rehabilitation Program that identifies the needs of both its
``transferred works''--infrastructure owned by Reclamation but
operated by local project sponsors--and its ``reserved
works''--projects owned and operated solely by Reclamation.
However, such reviews are not typically made public and exclude
project specific needs, even though other federal agencies
provide such detail. As an example, a Congressional Research
Service policy analyst stated last Congress:
. . . some agencies, such as the Environmental
Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation,
publish ``need assessments'' that include project level
estimates for needed repairs and upgrades . . . the
availability of estimates for individual Reclamation
facilities varies, and are generally not compiled or
regularly updated in a centralized, public record.
H.R. 660 requires Reclamation to compile an Infrastructure
Needs Assessment Report every two years as part of its existing
Asset Management Plan reporting process. In response to the
aforementioned criticism and prior legislation, Reclamation is
making efforts to be more transparent about its infrastructure.
In testimony delivered to the Water, Power and Oceans
Subcommittee in June 2015, an agency official indicated that a
bill nearly identical to H.R. 660 was consistent with its draft
``Infrastructure Investment Strategy''.
COMMITTEE ACTION
H.R. 660 was introduced on January 24, 2017, by Congressman
Paul A. Gosar (R-AZ). The bill was referred to the Committee on
Natural Resources, and within the Committee to the Subcommittee
on Water, Power and Oceans. On April 26, 2017, the Natural
Resources Committee met to consider the bill. The Subcommittee
on Water, Power and Oceans was discharged by unanimous consent.
No amendments were offered and the bill was adopted and ordered
favorably reported by unanimous consent on April 27, 2017.
SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS
Section 1 states the short title of the bill as the
``Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act''.
Section 2 lists findings related to Reclamation, its
infrastructure assets, and the need for more information about
the agency's maintenance needs due to its aging infrastructure.
Section 3 defines key terms used throughout the Act.
Section 4 directs the Secretary of the Interior to submit a
report on Reclamation's reserved works. The report shall
include a detailed assessment of major repair and
rehabilitation needs, with a cost estimate for completion of
each item and a categorical rating. This section also allows
the Secretary to exclude sensitive or classified information
from the report, and requires consultation with the Secretary
of the Army in preparing the Asset Management Report.
Section 5 directs the Secretary of the Interior to
coordinate with non-federal entities responsible for the
operation and maintenance of transferred works in developing
reporting requirements for Asset Management Reports, and
requires the Secretary to develop and implement a rating system
for transferred works that incorporated the same rating system
for reserved works.
Section 6 provides an offset for costs associated with the
bill.
COMMITTEE OVERSIGHT FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Regarding clause 2(b)(1) of rule X and clause 3(c)(1) of
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the
Committee on Natural Resources' oversight findings and
recommendations are reflected in the body of this report.
COMPLIANCE WITH HOUSE RULE XIII AND CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT
1. Cost of Legislation and the Congressional Budget Act.
With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(2) and (3) of
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and
sections 308(a) and 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of
1974, the Committee has received the following estimate for the
bill from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office:
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, May 9, 2017.
Hon. Rob Bishop,
Chairman, Committee on Natural Resources,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 660, the Bureau of
Reclamation Transparency Act.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Aurora
Swanson.
Sincerely,
Keith Hall.
Enclosure.
H.R. 660--Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act
H.R. 660 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 an analysis of information from BOR, CBO
estimates that implementing those provisions would cost $2
million; such spending would be subject to the availability of
appropriated funds.
H.R. 660 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 and federal costs would be lower by $2
million when the project is constructed. Based on information
from BOR, CBO does not expect construction of the project to
begin within the next five years.
Enacting H.R. 660 would not affect direct spending or
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO
estimates that enacting the bill would not increase net direct
spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive
10-year periods beginning in 2028.
H.R. 660 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.
On April 12, 2017, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for S.
216, the Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act, as ordered
reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources on March 30, 2017. The two pieces of legislation are
similar and CBO's estimates of the budgetary effects are the
same.
The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Aurora Swanson
(for federal costs) and Jon Sperl (for intergovernmental
mandates). The estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss,
Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
2. General Performance Goals and Objectives. As required by
clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII, the general performance goal or
objective of this bill is to require the Secretary of the
Interior to submit to the Congress a report on the efforts of
the Bureau of Reclamation to manage its infrastructure assets.
EARMARK STATEMENT
This bill does not contain any Congressional earmarks,
limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined
under clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule XXI of the Rules of
the House of Representatives.
COMPLIANCE WITH PUBLIC LAW 104-4
This bill contains no unfunded mandates.
COMPLIANCE WITH H. RES. 5
Directed Rule Making. This bill does not contain any
directed rule makings.
Duplication of Existing Programs. This bill does not
establish or reauthorize a program of the federal government
known to be duplicative of another program. Such program was
not included in any report from the Government Accountability
Office to Congress pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139
or identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal Domestic
Assistance published pursuant to the Federal Program
Information Act (Public Law 95-220, as amended by Public Law
98-169) as relating to other programs.
PREEMPTION OF STATE, LOCAL OR TRIBAL LAW
This bill is not intended to preempt any State, local or
tribal law.
CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW
If enacted, this bill would make no changes in existing
law.
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