69–006 

115TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 1st Session 115–156 

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, 

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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 

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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 

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$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 onbudget 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. 

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CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

If enacted, this bill would make no changes in existing law. 

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