To provide for a memorandum of understanding to address the impacts of a certain record of decision on the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund.
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Would direct the Bureau of Reclamation and the Western Area Power Administration to enter into a memorandum of understanding examining how a July 2024 Glen Canyon Dam management decision affects the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund, hydropower generation, and threatened and endangered fish species.
The 2024 decision revised operating protocols for Glen Canyon Dam to combat invasive smallmouth bass and protect the endangered humpback chub, raising concerns that those changes could reduce hydropower revenues that help fund the Fund's infrastructure obligations.
What this bill would do
What it would do
The bill would require the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Secretary of Energy, acting through the Western Area Power Administration, to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) as soon as practicable after enactment. The MOU would be developed in consultation with the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Work Group and must include a formal plan covering three topics: how the 2024 Glen Canyon Dam management decision may affect the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund's obligations (including routine operations, maintenance, and infrastructure replacement); how it affects hydropower production at Glen Canyon Dam and grid reliability; and what impacts it has had on species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
The bill would not authorize the agencies to revoke or modify the 2024 record of decision itself, and it explicitly preserves all rights and obligations under the Administrative Procedure Act. It creates a planning and coordination requirement rather than directing any particular operational change at the dam.
Key provisions
- 1Would direct the Bureau of Reclamation and the Western Area Power Administration, in consultation with the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Work Group, to enter into an MOU as soon as practicable after enactment.
- 2Would require the MOU to include a plan addressing how the 2024 Glen Canyon Dam record of decision may affect the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund's obligations, including operations and infrastructure maintenance.
- 3Would require the plan to address how the record of decision affects hydropower production at Glen Canyon Dam, including costs to replace hydropower resources and grid reliability impacts.
- 4Would require the plan to identify impacts of the record of decision on species listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
- 5Would preserve all rights and obligations under the Administrative Procedure Act; nothing in the Act would preempt APA procedures.
Who would be affected
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Western Area Power Administration, which would be required to negotiate and execute the MOU. Western power utilities and customers that purchase hydropower generated at Glen Canyon Dam could be affected by any findings about grid reliability and replacement power costs. States and entities with financial stakes in the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund, as well as conservation managers concerned with endangered fish species in the Colorado River system, are also implicated.
Why it matters
The Upper Colorado River Basin Fund depends partly on hydropower revenues from Glen Canyon Dam to meet its infrastructure and debt obligations. If the 2024 management changes reduce water flows available for power generation, those revenues could fall short. The required MOU would force the two agencies to formally assess and plan for that financial and operational exposure — a step that has not yet been required.
What would change
Agencies directed to act
Effective dates
- Agencies must enter into the MOU
Funding and costs
Congressional Budget Office estimate
CBO estimates H.R. 1001 would have no effect on direct spending, revenues, or the deficit over the 2025–2035 period, with only insignificant administrative costs subject to future appropriations.
CBO estimates that H.R. 1001 would produce zero change in direct spending (mandatory outlays), revenues, and the federal deficit over the 2025–2030 and 2025–2035 scoring windows. The bill would require the Bureau of Reclamation and the Western Area Power Administration to enter into a memorandum of understanding addressing how a 2024 record of decision—governing water-release experiments at Glen Canyon Dam—affects funding for dam operations, hydropower production, and species protection. Administrative costs to implement the MOU are estimated to be insignificant (less than $500,000) over the 2025–2030 period, and any such spending would depend on future appropriations (discretionary funding approved by Congress each year). CBO identified no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates in the bill.
How implementation would work
The Bureau of Reclamation and Western Area Power Administration would negotiate and execute the MOU "as soon as practicable" after enactment, consulting throughout with the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Work Group. The resulting plan within the MOU must draw on information from existing hydropower contracts. The bill sets no deadline beyond "as soon as practicable" and imposes no reporting requirement to Congress. The savings clause ensures that any MOU or related agency action remains subject to Administrative Procedure Act review.
Legislative status & sources
Latest action
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Official CRS summary
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This bill directs the Bureau of Reclamation and the Western Area Power Administration, in consultation with the Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Work Group, to enter into a memorandum of understanding to explore and address the impact that the 2024 record of decision entitled Supplement to the 2016 Glen Canyon Dam Long-Term Experimental and Management Plan Record of Decision has on the Upper Colorado River Basin Fund. The memorandum of understanding must include a plan to (1) address the effects that the decision may have on the fund's obligations, (2) address the impact that the decision has on hydropower production at Glen Canyon Dam, and (3) identify impacts that the decision has had on species listed as threatened or endangered species.
By way of background, Reclamation published a Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 for the Glen Canyon Dam Long-Term Experimental and Management Plan (LTEMP) in 2024. The SEIS revises the 2016 LTEMP Record of Decision to address two issues: (1) responding to the threat of the invasive smallmouth bass below Glen Canyon Dam, and (2) incorporating the latest sediment science to assess when high-flow experiments should be conducted in order to protect the endangered humpback chub.
Legislative subjects
Arizona; California; Dams and canals; Environmental assessment, monitoring, research; Fishes; Government trust funds; Lakes and rivers; Nevada; Water Resources Development; Wildlife conservation and habitat protection
Committee report
H. Rept. 119-61