The Senate Appropriations Committee this week approved the $22.5 billion Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, which includes a $9 billion budget for water management products such as dams, locks, irrigation systems and reservoirs.
Senator Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who chairs the Committee's Energy and Water Development Subcommittee, pushed for such funding as $16.8 million for Rio Grande river habitat protections. Domenici drafted an amendment that forbids the Department of Interior from forcing water-use districts to give up water to increase flows in the Rio Grande.
(Source: Environment News Service)
