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[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3189 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

113th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 3189

_______________________________________________________________________

                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             March 24, 2014

   Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT

 
    To prohibit the conditioning of any permit, lease, or other use 
 agreement on the transfer of any water right to the United States by 
            the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Water Rights Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. TREATMENT OF WATER RIGHTS.

    The Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture--
            (1) shall not condition the issuance, renewal, amendment, 
        or extension of any permit, approval, license, lease, 
        allotment, easement, right-of-way, or other land use or 
        occupancy agreement on the transfer of any water right 
        (including joint and sole ownership) directly to the United 
        States, or any impairment of title, in whole or in part, 
        granted or otherwise recognized under State law, by Federal or 
        State adjudication, decree, or other judgment, or pursuant to 
        any interstate water compact; and
            (2) shall not require any water user (including any 
        federally recognized Indian tribe) to apply for or acquire a 
        water right in the name of the United States under State law as 
        a condition of the issuance, renewal, amendment, or extension 
        of any permit, approval, license, lease, allotment, easement, 
        right-of-way, or other land use or occupancy agreement.

SEC. 3. DEFINITION.

    For purposes of this Act, the term ``water right'' means any 
surface, groundwater, or storage use filed, permitted, certificated, 
confirmed, decreed, adjudicated, or otherwise recognized by a judicial 
proceeding or by the State in which the user acquires possession of the 
water or puts it to beneficial use. Such term shall include water 
rights for federally recognized Indian tribes.

SEC. 4. IMPACT ON EXISTING AUTHORITY.

    Nothing in this Act limits or expands any existing legally 
recognized authority of the Secretaries to issue, grant, or condition 
any permit, approval, license, lease, allotment, easement, right-of-
way, or other land use or occupancy agreement on Federal lands subject 
to their respective jurisdictions.

SEC. 5. EFFECT ON RECLAMATION CONTRACTS.

    Nothing in this Act shall in any way interfere with existing or 
future Bureau of Reclamation contracts entered into pursuant to Federal 
reclamation law (the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388, chapter 1093), 
and Acts supplemental to and amendatory of that Act).

SEC. 6. EFFECT ON ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT.

    Nothing in this Act shall affect the implementation of the 
Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).

SEC. 7. EFFECT ON FEDERAL RESERVED WATER RIGHTS.

    Nothing in this Act limits or expands any existing reserved water 
rights of the Federal Government on lands administered by the Secretary 
of the Interior or the Secretary of Agriculture.

SEC. 8. EFFECT ON FEDERAL POWER ACT.

    Nothing in this Act limits or expands authorities pursuant to 
sections 4(e), 10(j), or 18 of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 797(e), 
803(j), and 811).

SEC. 9. EFFECT ON INDIAN WATER RIGHTS.

    Nothing in this Act limits or expands any existing reserved water 
right or treaty right of any federally recognized Indian tribe.

            Passed the House of Representatives March 13, 2014.

            Attest:

                                                 KAREN L. HAAS,

                                                                 Clerk.
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