Cortez Masto Calls Out Secretary Burgum Over His Plan to Cut Bureau of Reclamation Funding Amid Historic Drought

Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) pressed Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum about his plans to gut funding for the Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), the agency responsible for overseeing water management and drought mitigation. Amid the ongoing drought crisis in the American West, the Trump Administration’s budget’s 22 percent cut in funding to the USBR and elimination of the WaterSMART program would be devastating for communities across Nevada. The Senator confronted Burgum about his planned cuts to USBR: “My question to you is knowing […] what is happening along the Colorado River and what we need to do as Basin states to focus on conservation and smart water programs, why does the Interior’s budget cut funding for their Bureau of Reclamation by 22 percent, and why does it to zero out all the WaterSMART programs that fund water recycling, reuse grants, drought response, and water and energy efficiency programs?” When Burgum did not answer the Senator’s question directly, she pressed him: “Why would you cut the programs necessary to keep the water in the system?” Burgum responded, claiming that “it’s a question of what is the federal share versus the state share versus the local share.” Cortez Masto continued to push Burgum, reminding him that in private meetings his staff had actually urged Senators to invest more in water reuse programs, “yet your budget is cutting all of that. So, how are we supposed to believe that you really are going to focus on […] the concerns we have along the Colorado River right now?” Burgum deflected, saying states need to take more responsibility for drought management. Cortez Masto shot back, reiterating Nevada’s enormous success in drought mitigation: “Let me just be very, very clear so everybody knows this in this room and that’s listening online. In Nevada, out of the 15 million acre-feet of water along the Colorado River, at the time of the agreement we only got 230,000 acre-feet of water. That’s all Nevada has. And we’ve done a pretty damn good job with conservation, of reusing our greywater. We recycle close to 100 percent of our water. We’ve done everything we possibly can, and we still do not use our allotment. […] If we are going to address this issue, you need to work with us and not against us […]” The Senator also used her questioning to press Secretary Burgum about why Interior seems to be willing to process permits for oil and gas but not for solar and wind projects. Senator Cortez Masto has been a leader in the Senate working to combat drought and modernize Nevada’s water infrastructure. She is leading bipartisan legislation to support large-scale water recycling programs. Cortez Masto has secured millions in funding for access to clean water and drought-resistant landscaping in Nevada. Just this year, she has successfully passed legislation to construct the Horizon Lateral Water Pipeline to provide water for over one million Nevadans and to release funding for improvements to the Hoover Dam. ###