A bill to ensure that United States diplomats and officials of the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission are able to advance efforts seeking compliance by the United Mexican States with the 1944 Treaty on Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande.

Bill: 118-s-4253
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Cruz, Ted [R-TX]
Introduced: 2024-05-02
Policy area: International Affairs
Latest action: action_date: 2024-05-02
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations.

Summaries:

tv_txt: II 118th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4253 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES May 2, 2024 Mr. Cruz (for himself and Mr. Cornyn ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations A BILL To ensure that United States diplomats and officials of the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission are able to advance efforts seeking compliance by the United Mexican States with the 1944 Treaty on Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande.

1. Findings Congress makes the following findings: (1) Article 4 of the Treaty on Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande (the Treaty ), signed in 1944 between the United States and the United Mexican States ( Mexico ) requires Mexico to supply to the United States an amount of water annually that shall not be less, as an average amount in cycles of five consecutive years, than 350,000 acre-feet (431,721,000 cubic meters) . (2) Irrigation water shortages in the Lower Rio Grande Valley have persisted since the 1990s, and Mexico has exacerbated those conditions by failing to meet its Treaty obligations. (3) Mexico is obligated to provide the United States with 1,750,000 acre-feet of water by October 2025 for the five-year period beginning on October 2020, but as of March 2024 had delivered less than 400,000 acre-feet of water, a rate that forecloses the possibility of compliance with the Treaty. (4) A recent report by the Center for North American Studies estimated that a complete lack of irrigation water for crop production in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in 2024 would result in $495,800,000 in direct revenue loss. (5) In 2024, Texas’s only sugar mill, the Rio Grande Valley Sugar Growers Mill, closed due to a lack of water made available via the Treaty. (6) The United States and Mexico have engaged in negotiations over a Minute to the Treaty to address Mexico's non-compliance, but as of May 1, 2024, the United States and Mexico have not reached agreement on it. 2. Advancing efforts seeking compliance by Mexico with Treaty on Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande The Secretary of State shall use the voice, vote, diplomatic capital, and resources of the United States to ensure that United States diplomats and officials of the U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission are able to advance efforts seeking compliance by the United Mexican States with the Treaty on Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande, signed at Washington February 3, 1944, and to establish understandings to provide predictable and reliable future deliveries of water by the United Mexican States.