Bennet, Hickenlooper, Hurd, Crank, Neguse, Evans, Pettersen, Boebert, DeGette, Crow Urge Trump Administration to Release $140 Million in Obligated Federal Funding to Address Colorado River Crisis, Fund Shoshone Project

Aug 5, 2025|Press Releases
Denver— Colorado U.S. Senators Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, alongside Colorado U.S. Representatives Jeff Hurd, Jeff Crank, Joe Neguse, Gabe Evans, Brittany Pettersen, Lauren Boebert, Diana DeGette, and Jason Crow, called on Department of the Interior (DOI) Acting Assistant Secretary Scott Cameron and Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) Acting Commissioner David Palumbo to release $140 million in previously awarded federal funding for 15 Colorado projects, including the Shoshone project, to help fight the Colorado River crisis.
“By making the Colorado River Basin’s headwaters more resilient, these Bucket 2 projects will also help manage the impacts of the unrelenting 25-year drought affecting the Colorado River Basin,”wrote Bennet and the Colorado lawmakers. “We ask you to move forward with obligating the remaining $140 million worth of Bucket 2 projects in Colorado – not just for the benefit of our state, but for the resilience of the entire Colorado River Basin.”
This January, USBR announced up to $140 million in federal funding for 17 projects in Colorado to combat the Colorado River crisis, increase drought resiliency, and restore habitats. However, only two of the 17 projects have received funding.
The federal funding comes from theInflation Reduction Act(IRA), which included $4 billion to mitigate the effects of drought, including activities to support environmental benefits and promote ecosystem and habitat restoration, and the USBR’s Upper Colorado River Basin Environmental Drought Mitigation program, referred to as “Bucket 2”.
In January of this year, Bennet and Hickenloopercelebrated$152 million from USBR for 17 Colorado projects to combat the Colorado River crisis, increase drought resiliency, and restore habitats, and $18 million for drought mitigation in the Upper Rio Grande Basin – investments made possible through the $4 billion Bennethelped securein theIRA. In October 2024, Bennet and HickenlooperurgedUSBR to support the Colorado River Water Conservation District’s application for federal funding to purchase two of the oldest water rights on the Colorado River mainstem in Colorado, known as the Shoshone Permanency Project. The Shoshone Permanency Project will benefit the Colorado River ecosystem, especially as Colorado and the West face unprecedented drought.
The text of the letter is availableHEREand below.
A list of the Colorado projects awarded Bucket 2 funding are available below. The two projects that recently received a recommitment of funding are at the bottom.
Dear Acting Assistant Secretary Cameron and Acting Commissioner Palumbo:
We write to urge you to release funding for fifteen Colorado projects that were selected for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Upper Colorado River Basin Environmental Drought Mitigation funding opportunity, part of a category of funding commonly known as “Bucket 2.” We appreciate that you recently released funding for two such projects in western Colorado which will ensure reliable water delivery while improving water quality and endangered fish habitat. Now, we ask you to move forward with obligating the remaining $140 million worth of Bucket 2 projects in Colorado – not just for the benefit of our state, but for the resilience of the entire Colorado River Basin.
In 2022, Congress provided $4 billion to address the impacts of drought with a priority for the Colorado River Basin, including activities to support environmental benefits and promote ecosystem and habitat restoration. This directive recognizes the interconnected nature of a water system like Colorado’s, which relies on healthy waterways as our most important conveyance facilities. The majority of Colorado’s awards from the $4 billion provided by Congress thus far have been for these Bucket 2 projects, which were developed by our state’s water users – Tribes, irrigation districts, agricultural producers, towns, and conservation groups – who understand the improvements they need to build drought resilience.
By making the Colorado River Basin’s headwaters more resilient, these Bucket 2 projects will also help manage the impacts of the unrelenting 25-year drought affecting the Colorado River Basin. As Colorado and the other Basin States work towards an agreement for future operations on the river, it is critical to invest in the health of our headwaters so we can all better withstand the impacts of drought. We must make these investments in long-term drought management now as Congress intended, and not delay until only short-term solutions are available.
Each of Colorado’s Bucket 2 projects deliver water supply security in ways that make sense for our state. Every project was the result of thoughtful collaboration amongst regional partners and every project provides multiple benefits. For example, one project will improve water supply reliability to 23,000 acres of tribal and non-tribal agricultural lands by repairing deteriorated infrastructure and simultaneously improving fish habitat. Another will deploy drought mitigation strategies across an entire region of the state, benefiting a wide variety of water users. Yet another will secure permanency of river flows with large-scale, systematic benefits to the Colorado River and has garnered support from rural communities across western Colorado.
Our water infrastructure in Colorado is not just a network of manmade dams, canals, and pipelines – crucially, it is also the streams and rivers that convey water, the headwater meadows and wetlands that regulate water timing, the healthy forests that store snowpack, the riparian areas that prevent erosion, and the reliable flows that we all count on. With the headwaters of the Colorado River originating in our state, resilience in Colorado means resilience for the whole basin. We stand ready to work with you on building the West’s drought resilience, and ask that you help us do so by fully funding Colorado’s Bucket 2 projects.
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