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1 [1] (December 15, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/goveszk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional Research Service Informing the legisiitive debate since 1914 Updated December 15, 2025 Bureau of Reclamation: FY2026 Budget and Appropriations The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), part of the Department of the Interior, is responsible for the construction and operation of hundreds of large dams and water diversion structures in the 17 western Reclamation States, as designated in statute (43 U.S.C. §391). Reclamation is the largest wholesale supplier of water in these 17 states and the second-largest hydroelectric power producer in the nation. Reclamation's Water and Related Resources account funds most agency activities, as well as the agency's programmatic and grant authorities (e.g., water reuse and recycling, desalination, and conservation/efficiency, among other purposes). Reclamation also receives funding for three smaller accounts: California Bay-Delta Restoration, the Central Valley Project Restoration Fund (which is offset by customer receipts), and Policy and Administration. FY2026 Budget and Appropr ations Administrations typically have requested a lower amount for Reclamation than the final enacted total of annual appropriations. The FY2026 budget proposed $1.273 billion in current budget authority for Reclamation, or $587 million (32%) less than the $1.860 billion Congress approved for FY2025 in the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (P.L. 119-4; the full-year continuing resolution [CR]). The House-passed FY2026 Energy and Water (E&W) Appropriations bill (H.R. 4553) and the Senate-introduced FY2026 E&W Appropriations bill (S. 3293) both would provide more funding than the Administration's budget request for Reclamation (Figure 1). Figure I. Reclamation Annual Appropriations, FY20 I 6-FY2025, and Proposed Levels for FY2026 A Other Water&Re ated t nfaton-Acdjusted Accounts Pesources Accoun Tta Source: CRS, based on enacted appropriations, FY2026 budget request (FY26 Req), H.R. 4553 (FY26 Hse), S. 3293 (FY26 Senate). Inflation adjustment based on FY2026 Budget Request, Historical Table 10.1. Notes: Amounts do not reflect supplemental funding or offsetting receipts. CR = P.L. 119-4. Additonal Funding Avaiable for FY2026 Congress approved supplemental appropriations for Reclamation in three separate bills since 2020: the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58; IIJA) included $8.3 billion total, made available in equal installments from FY2022 to FY2026 (i.e., $1.660 billion per year); P.L. 117-169 provided Reclamation with $4.590 billion in funding (available through FY2026 or FY2031), $4.0 billion of which was for western drought mitigation; and P.L. 119-21 appropriated $1.000 billion to Reclamation for FY2025 (available through FY2034) for projects that increase the capacity of Reclamation surface water storage projects. The FY2026 Senate-introduced E&W bill proposes transferring $200 million of aging infrastructure funding in the IIJA to fund FY2026 discretionary Water and Related Resources activities. Addit onal Funding and Earmarks Reclamation's Water and Related Resources account consists largely of individual project funding lines. During the 112th-116th Congresses, Reclamation appropriations were subject to general earmark moratoriums that restricted Congress from funding geographically specific project line items not requested by the Administration. Instead, Congress included Additional Funding amounts for specified categories of Reclamation projects, such as Rural Water, Water Conservation and Delivery, Environmental Restoration and Compliance, Fish Passage/Fish Screens, and Facilities Maintenance and Rehabilitation. The Administration allocated these funds for specific projects in spend plans made available several months after enactment of the appropriations bills. In the 117th and 118th Congresses, Congress has recommended earmarks (now categorized as community projectfunding [CPF] or congressionally directed spending [CDS] in the House and Senate, respectively), in addition to amounts designated as Additional Funding (i.e., funding to be allocated in subsequent work plans). For FY2025, P.L. 119-4 approved no new CPF/CDS projects. For FY2026, House and Senate proposals once again included these projects in different amounts. Recent CPF/CDS and Additional Funding levels are shown below in Figure 2.