jiayi-li23/proxann_data huggingface dataset:
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-02-25 00:00:00

Sacramento Valley Water Storage and Restoration Act of 2015

 Directs the Department of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Reclamation, to: (1) finalize and publish in the Federal Register the feasibility study authorized in the Water Supply, Reliability, and Environmental Improvement Act, for enlargement of the Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County, California; (2) work with the Department of Commerce, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Environmental Protection Agency, by June 30, 2015, to coordinate the efforts of the relevant agencies and work with the state of California, the Sites Project Authority, and other stakeholders to complete and issue the final joint environmental impact statement and report on the Sites Project (the Sites Reservoir in Glenn and Colusa Counties, California, and related facilities, including associated water conveyance and hydropower generation and transmission facilities); and (3) enter into agreements with the Authority to carry out such work as the Bureau and the Authority mutually agree is appropriate to ensure that all studies and environmental reviews are completed on an expeditious basis and that the shortest applicable process under the National Environmental Policy Act is utilized, including in the completion of the final feasibility study and final joint environmental impact statement and report on the Sites Project.

Amends the Calfed Bay-Delta Authorization Act to: (1) authorize construction of the Sites Reservoir in Colusa County if Interior determines that the project is feasible; and (2) direct the Bureau, at the Authority's request, to enter into a project partnership agreement for the Authority to provide full project management control for construction of the Sites Project, or a separable element of the Project, in accordance with plans approved by Interior.

Authorizes and directs: (1) the Bureau to advance the Sites Project as a non-federal project if the Bureau determines and Interior concurs that the Project can be expedited by the Authority as a non-federal project and that there is a demonstrable federal interest for the Project to be constructed and operated as a non-federal project, and (2) Interior to execute and implement a long-term agreement with the Authority for the coordination of operations of the Central Valley Project and the Sites Project.

Directs the Bureau to: (1) be the lead federal agency for the purposes of all federal reviews, analyses, opinions, statements, permits, licenses, or other approvals or decisions required under federal law to allow either the Bureau or the Authority to construct the Sites Project; and (2) take such steps as necessary to ensure that all such reviews, approvals, or decisions required to allow either the Bureau or the Authority to construct the Sites Project are completed on an expeditious basis and utilize the shortest applicable process.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-02-26 00:00:00

Bureau of Reclamation Transparency Act

(Sec. 4) This bill directs the Department of the Interior to submit to Congress, make publicly available, and biennially update an Asset Management Report that describes the Bureau of Reclamation's efforts to maintain in a reliable manner all reserved works (buildings, structures, facilities, or equipment owned by the Bureau for which operations and maintenance are performed by Bureau employees or through a contract with the Bureau) at Reclamation facilities (infrastructure assets that are owned by the Bureau at each Reclamation project owned by the Bureau) and to standardize and streamline data reporting and processes across regions and areas for the purpose of maintaining such works.

Such Report must include: (1) a detailed assessment of major repair and rehabilitation needs for all such works; and (2) an itemized list of major repair and rehabilitation needs of individual Reclamation facilities at each Reclamation project, including a budget level cost estimate of appropriations needed to complete each item and an assignment of a categorical rating for each item consistent with existing uniform categorization systems to inform the annual budget process and agency requirements.

Interior may exclude from the public version of the Report any information that it identifies as sensitive or classified, but shall make available to specified congressional committees a version of the report containing the sensitive or classified information.

(Sec. 5) Interior must: (1) coordinate with the non-federal entities responsible for the operation and maintenance of transferred works (Reclamation facilities at which operations and maintenance are carried out by a non-federal entity under a formal agreement with the Bureau) in developing reporting requirements for Asset Management Reports regarding major repair and rehabilitation needs for transferred works, and (2) develop and implement a categorical rating system for transferred works that incorporates the rating system for major repair and rehabilitation needs for reserved works.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Health
Date: 2015-03-02 00:00:00

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to remove the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to prohibit the specification, or restrict the use, of an area as a disposal site for discharges of dredged or fill materials into waters of the United States once the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a permit for the discharge.

The bill applies to discharge permits issued: (1) after this bill's enactment, and (2) on or before enactment if the EPA failed to submit to the Army Corps a written objection to the permit prior to the Army Corps' issuance of the permit.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-03-16 00:00:00

Directs the Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers to revise the Missouri Mainstem Reservoir System Master Water Control Manual and any related regulations to delete fish and wildlife as an authorized purpose of the Corps and elevate flood control as the highest priority of authorized purposes of the Corps at all times.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-03-26 00:00:00

Drought Resilience Investment Act of 2015

Amends the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014 to exempt a water resources infrastructure project receiving federal credit assistance under the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, that is carried out in a state during any period in which a state of drought declaration issued by the state's governor is in effect, from the prohibition against being financed with proceeds of any: (1) obligation that is tax exempt; or (2) qualified tax credit bond or a Build America Bond.

Specifies that a state of drought declaration shall remain in effect until the date on which the governor rescinds the declaration.

Terminates this Act on September 30, 2018.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-04-14 00:00:00

Delaware River Basin Conservation Act of 2015

Requires the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to establish a nonregulatory Delaware River Basin restoration program, under which it shall: (1) draw on management plans for the Basin or portions of the Basin and work in consultation with applicable management entities, including representatives of the Partnership for the Delaware Estuary, the Delaware River Basin Commission, the federal government, other state and local governments, and regional and nonprofit organizations, to identify, prioritize, and implement restoration and protection activities within the Basin; (2) adopt a Basin-wide strategy that supports the implementation of a shared set of science-based restoration and protection activities, targets cost-effective projects with measurable results, and maximizes conservation outcomes with no net gain of federal full-time equivalent employees; and (3) establish voluntary grant and technical assistance programs in accordance with this Act.

Defines "Basin" as the four-state Delaware Basin region, including all of Delaware Bay and portions of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania located in the Delaware River watershed.

Requires the USFWS to: (1) establish the Delaware River Basin restoration grant program to provide competitive matching grants to carry out restoration and protection activities within the Basin, and (2) develop criteria for such grant program to ensure that funded activities accomplish specified purposes and advance the implementation of priority actions or needs identified in the strategy adopted under this Act.

Authorizes the USFWS to contract with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation or another organization that offers grant management services.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-04-14 00:00:00

Innovative Stormwater Infrastructure Act of 2015

This bill requires the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide grants to eligible higher education institutions and research institutions to establish and maintain between three and five centers of excellence for innovative stormwater control infrastructure, which is any stormwater management technique that: (1) uses natural systems or engineered systems that mimic natural processes to infiltrate, evapotranspire, or capture stormwater; and (2) preserves, enhances, or mimics natural hydrology to protect or restore water quality. One of the centers must be the national electronic clearinghouse center and operate a website and a public database on the infrastructure.

The EPA must: (1) provide grants to eligible entities that manage stormwater, water resources, or wastewater resources to carry out innovative stormwater control infrastructure projects; and (2) give priority to applications from a community that has combined storm and sanitary sewers in its collection system or is low-income or disadvantaged, or from an eligible entity that will use at least 10% of the grant for a low-income or disadvantaged community.

The EPA must ensure that: (1) EPA's Office of Water, Office of Enforcement and Compliance, Office of Research and Development, and Office of Policy promote the use of the infrastructure in, and coordinate its integration into, permitting programs, planning efforts, research, technical assistance, and funding guidance; and (2) the Office of Water supports establishing innovative financing mechanisms in the implementation of the infrastructure. The EPA must: (1) direct each EPA regional office to promote and integrate the use of the infrastructure within the region, and (2) promote sharing information about the infrastructure approaches.

The EPA must establish the innovative stormwater control infrastructure portfolio standard of voluntary, measurable goals to increase the percentage of annual water managed by entities that use the infrastructure.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Public lands and natural resources
Date: 2015-04-16 00:00:00

Water Rights Protection Act

 Prohibits the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture from:

 conditioning or withholding the issuance, renewal, amendment, or extension of any permit, approval, license, lease, allotment, easement, right-of-way, or other land use or occupancy agreement (permit) on the limitation or encumbrance of any water right or the transfer of any water right to the United States or any other designee, or any other impairment of any water right under state law by federal or state action; requiring any water user (including a 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 such a permit; asserting jurisdiction over groundwater withdrawals or impacts on groundwater resources, unless consistent with state groundwater resource laws, regulations, and policies; or infringing on the rights and obligations of a state in evaluating, allocating, and adjudicating state waters originating on or under, or flowing from, land owned or managed by the federal government.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-04-29 00:00:00

Directs the Department of the Interior to: (1) enter into negotiations for the transfer of ownership, control, and operation of the New Melones Unit, Central Valley Project to interested local water and power providers within California; (2) report to specified congressional committees every six months on such negotiations, on actions Interior recommends the United States take to finalize an agreement for such transfer, and on the terms of any agreement reached; and (3) transfer such Unit in accordance with such an agreement.

Defines: (1) the "New Melones Unit, Central Valley Project" to mean all federal reclamation projects located within or diverting water from or to the watershed of the Stanislaus and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries; and (2) "interested local water and power providers" to include the Calaveras County Water District, Central San Joaquin Water Conservation District, Modesto Irrigation District, Oakdale Irrigation District, Stockton East Water District, South San Joaquin Irrigation District, Tuolumne Utilities District, Turlock Irrigation District, and Union Public Utilities District.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Animals
Date: 2015-04-29 00:00:00

Directs the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Oakdale and South San Joaquin Irrigation Districts in California (the districts) to jointly develop and conduct a pilot program to remove non-native striped bass, smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, black bass, and other non-native predator fish from the Stanislaus River. Requires the program to: (1) be scientifically based; (2) include methods to quantify the number and size of predator fish removed each year, the impact of such removal on the overall abundance of predator fish, and the impact of such removal on the populations of certain juvenile anadromous fish found in the Stanislaus River; and (3) be implemented for seven consecutive years.

Requires the districts to be responsible for the cost of such program. Authorizes the Service to accept and use contributions of funds from the districts to carry out activities under the program.

Directs: (1) the Service to post, each month, on its Internet website a tabular summary of the raw data collected under the program in the preceding month; and (2) the Service and the districts, by June 30 of the year following the completion of the program, to jointly submit for peer review a report that discusses program's findings and conclusions, synthesizes the data collected, and makes recommendations for further study and action.

Voids and preempts any California legal restriction imposed on, or the permitting of, the catch, take, or harvest of any non-native or introduced aquatic or terrestrial species that preys upon specified stocks of anadromous fish and that occupies or is found in the Stanislaus River.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-05-12 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the House on March 14, 2016. The summary of that version is repeated here.)

(Sec. 1) This bill authorizes the Department of the Interior, in cooperation with the state of Wyoming, to amend the Definite Plan Report for the Seedskadee Project authorized under the Colorado River Storage Project Act to provide for the study, design, planning, and construction activities that will enable the use of all active storage capacity of Fontenelle Dam and Reservoir, including the placement of sufficient riprap on the upstream face of the Dam to allow such storage capacity to be used for authorized Project purposes.

Interior may enter into: (1) any contract, grant, cooperative agreement, or other agreement that is necessary to carry out this Act; and (2) contracts with Wyoming for division of any additional active capacity made available under this Act.

Interior shall enter into a cooperative agreement with Wyoming for planning, design, related preconstruction activities, and construction of any modification of the Fontenelle Dam under this Act, which shall specify the responsibilities of Interior and Wyoming regarding: (1) completing the planning and final design of such modification, (2) any environmental and cultural resource compliance activities required for such modification, and (3) the construction of such modification. As a condition of providing additional storage, Wyoming shall provide to Interior funds for any work carried out to do so.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Environmental protection
Date: 2015-05-20 00:00:00

Columbia River Basin Restoration Act of 2015

This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a Columbia River Basin Restoration Program to reduce toxic contamination and clean up contaminated sites. The program must be collaborative and stakeholder-based.

The EPA must: (1) assess trends in water quality and toxic contamination or toxics reduction; (2) collect, characterize and assess data on toxics and water quality to identify possible causes of environmental problems; (3) update the Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Plan (Action Plan) and the Estuary Partnership Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan (Estuary Plan) and ensure that the plans form a coherent toxic contamination reduction strategy; and (4) provide technical assistance in implementing and updating the Action Plan.

The EPA must establish a Columbia River Basin Toxics Reduction Working Group to: (1) participate in developing updates to the Action Plan, (2) recommend and prioritize projects and actions for the Action Plan, and (3) review progress made.

The Lower Columbia River Estuary Partnership has to perform those duties and fulfill those responsibilities of the Working Group relating to the Lower Columbia River Estuary.

The EPA must establish a Columbia River Basin toxics grant program to provide funding to develop or implement projects to implement the Action Plan and the Estuary Plan.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

Dam Rehabilitation and Repair Act of 2015

 Amends the National Dam Safety Program Act to require the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to establish a program to provide grant assistance to states for use in rehabilitating publicly-owned dams that fail to meet minimum safety standards of the state or an Indian tribe and pose an unacceptable risk to the public (deficient dams).

Sets forth provisions regarding procedures for grant awards and fund allocation. Requires FEMA to: (1) require a state to provide an assurance that the owner of the dam to be rehabilitated has developed and will carry out a maintenance plan during the expected life of the dam, (2) require a recipient of a grant under this Act to comply with requirements applicable to contributions of federal funds under the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, and (3) develop a risk-based priority system for identifying deficient dams for which such grants may be made. Limits the federal share of rehabilitation costs to 75%.

Prohibits grant funds from being used to: (1) rehabilitate a federal dam, (2) perform routine operation or maintenance, (3) modify a dam to produce hydroelectric power, (4) increase water supply storage capacity, or (5) make any other modification that does not also improve dam safety.

Conditions the receipt of grants by a state upon the state following specified requirements applicable to contracts for architectural and engineering services when entering into contracts for services relating to dam rehabilitation. Provides that such contracts shall not be considered to confer a proprietary interest upon the United States.

Prohibits funds from being obligated for a project under this Act unless the steel, iron, and manufactured goods used for the project are produced in the United States. Authorizes waivers.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-05-21 00:00:00

Directs the Department of the Army to operate the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint federal water resources projects on the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee, and Flint Rivers in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia in a manner that ensures the maintenance of freshwater flows.

Defines "freshwater flows" to mean the quality, quantity, timing, and variability of freshwater flows required to: (1) support and reestablish the ecological integrity of the rivers, commercial and recreational fisheries dependent on freshwater flows into Apalachicola Bay and adjacent waters, and thriving and diverse fish, wildlife, and plant populations having species composition, diversity, adaptability, and functional organization similar to those found prior to construction of the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint projects; (2) restore and recover species that are endangered, threatened, or at risk; and (3) prevent significantly harmful adverse impacts to the Chattahoochee and Apalachicola River ecosystems.

Requires the Army to: (1) complete the ongoing revision of the water control manuals for such projects and issue revised manuals that ensure the maintenance of freshwater flows; (2) ensure that operational modifications needed to maintain freshwater flows are achieved while providing system-wide balance in conservation storage through the maintenance of water levels within the same action zone for each of the project reservoirs; (3) enter into an arrangement for the National Academy of Sciences to carry out an independent peer review of each revised manual; and (4) obtain written approval from the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Geological Survey of each manual developed before a final manual may be issued.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-06-12 00:00:00

Dams Accountability, Maintenance, and Safety Act

Amends the Reclamation Safety of Dams Act of 1978 to authorize the Department of the Interior, subject to a feasibility study, to develop additional project benefits (including additional conservation storage capacity) through the construction of new or supplementary works when it exercises its authority to modify Bureau of Reclamation dams and related facilities to preserve their structural safety, provided that: (1) the additional project benefits will promote more efficient management of water and water-related facilities, (2) the feasibility study is authorized under the Federal Water Project Recreation Act of 1965, and (3) the costs are allocated to the authorized purposes of the structure and repaid consistent with federal reclamation law.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Transportation and public works
Date: 2015-07-20 00:00:00

(This measure has not been amended since it was reported to the House on September 8, 2015. The summary of that version is repeated here.) (Sec. 2) Directs the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, using available funds, to develop a Veterans' Curation Program to hire veterans and members of the Armed Forces to assist in carrying out curation and historic preservation activities.
Topic: Public Lands — Water Resources
Subject: Water resources development
Date: 2015-07-29 00:00:00

Waterway Safety Improvement Act of 2015

This bill amends the Water Resources Development Act of 1986 to authorize the Department of the Army to make modifications to deep-draft, high-commercial-use channels, including bends and entrances, as necessary to ensure safe navigation and efficient operations of such channels without regard to provisions of such Act regarding the maximum cost of water resources development and conservation projects.