Colorado River Basin System Conservation Extension Act of 2025

The bill would reauthorize the Colorado River System conservation pilot program by amending the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015. Specifically, it would extend the program's authorization period by two years — moving the operational deadline from 2024 to 2026 and the sunset date from 2025 to 2027 — allowing the Bureau of Reclamation to continue funding voluntary water conservation agreements that increase water levels in the Upper Colorado River Basin and Lake Mead.

The bill makes three targeted text changes to the existing 2015 law and does not create new programs, establish new requirements, or appropriate new funds. Its effect is limited to keeping an existing pilot program alive past its current expiration date.

The Bureau of Reclamation, which administers the pilot program, and water users in the seven Colorado River Basin states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming — who participate voluntarily in conservation agreements under the program.

Without this extension, the pilot program's authority would lapse, ending the Bureau of Reclamation's ability to enter new voluntary conservation agreements to bolster water levels in the Colorado River system. Continued authorization gives basin water managers more flexibility to address drought-driven shortfalls in one of the nation's most heavily used river systems.

The bill is self-executing: it makes three targeted text substitutions in existing law, extending the operational and sunset dates. No rulemaking or new agency action is required beyond the Bureau of Reclamation continuing to administer the existing pilot program under the updated authority. Congress retains oversight through the existing framework of the 2015 appropriations act.