Section 1 Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act of 2023”.
Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act of 2023
A BILL
To reauthorize the Bureau of Reclamation to provide cost-shared funding to implement the endangered and threatened fish recovery programs for the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins.
Sec. 2 Reauthorization of Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins endangered fish and threatened fish recovery implementation programs
Purpose— Section 1 of Public Law 106–392 (114 Stat. 1602) is amended by inserting “and threatened” after “endangered”.
in paragraph (1), by striking “to implement the Recovery Implementation Program for the Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River dated September 29, 1987, and extended by the Extension of the Cooperative Agreement dated December 6, 2001, and the 1992 Cooperative Agreement to implement the San Juan River Recovery Implementation Program dated October 21, 1992, and as they may be amended” and inserting “for the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin dated September 29, 1987, and the 1992 Cooperative Agreement for the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program dated October 21, 1992, as the agreements may be amended and extended”;
in paragraph (6)—
by inserting “or threatened” after “endangered”; and
by striking “removal or translocation” and inserting “control”;
in paragraph (7), by striking “long-term” each place it appears;
in paragraph (8), in the second sentence, by striking “1988 Cooperative Agreement and the 1992 Cooperative Agreement” and inserting “Recovery Implementation Programs”;
in paragraph (9)—
by striking “leases and agreements” and inserting “acquisitions”;
by inserting “or threatened” after “endangered”; and
by inserting “, as approved under the Recovery Implementation Programs” after “nonnative fishes”; and
in paragraph (10), by inserting “pursuant to the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin” after “Service”.
Authorization To fund recovery programs— Section 3 of Public Law 106–392 (114 Stat. 1603; 116 Stat. 3113; 120 Stat. 290; 123 Stat 1310; 126 Stat. 2444; 133 Stat. 809) (as amended by section 101 of division CC of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 (Public Law 117–328)) is amended—
in subsection (a)—
in paragraph (1), by striking “(1) There is hereby authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary, $88,000,000 to undertake capital projects to carry out the purposes of this Act. Such funds” and inserting the following:
“(1) Authorization
“(A) In general—Subject to subparagraph (B), there is authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary for use by the Bureau of Reclamation to undertake capital projects to carry out the purposes of this Act $50,000,000 for the period of fiscal years 2024 through 2031.
“(B) Inflation adjustment—Each fiscal year, the amount authorized to be appropriated under subparagraph (A) shall be adjusted for inflation from the date of enactment of the Upper Colorado and San Juan River Basins Endangered Fish Recovery Programs Reauthorization Act of 2023 to the beginning of that fiscal year.
“(B) Annual adjustment—For each of fiscal years 2025 through 2031, the amount authorized to be appropriated under subparagraph (A) shall be annually adjusted to reflect widely available engineering cost indices applicable to relevant construction activities.
“(C) Nonreimbursable funds—Amounts made available pursuant to subparagraph (A)”
in paragraph (2), by striking “Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin shall expire in fiscal year 2024” and inserting “Programs shall expire in fiscal year 2031”; and
by striking paragraph (3);
by striking subsections (b) and (c) and inserting the following:
“(b) Non-Federal Contributions to Capital Projects—The Secretary, acting through the Bureau of Reclamation, may accept contributed funds, interests in land and water, or other contributions from the Upper Division States, political subdivisions of the Upper Division States, or individuals, entities, or organizations within the Upper Division States, pursuant to agreements that provide for the contributions to be used for capital projects costs.”
by redesignating subsections (d) through (j) as subsections (c) through (i), respectively;
in subsection (c) (as so redesignated)—
in paragraph (1)(A), by striking “$10,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2024” and inserting “$92,040,000 for the period of fiscal years 2024 through 2031”;
in paragraph (2)—
in the first sentence, by striking “$4,000,000 per year” and inserting “$61,100,000 for the period of fiscal years 2024 through 2031”;
in the second sentence—
by inserting “Basin” after “San Juan River”; and
by striking “$2,000,000 per year” and inserting “$30,940,000 for the period of fiscal years 2024 through 2031”; and
in the third sentence, by striking “in fiscal years commencing after the enactment of this Act” and inserting “for fiscal year 2024 and each fiscal year thereafter”; and
by striking paragraph (3) and inserting the following:
“(3) Federal contributions to annual base funding
“(A) In general—For each of fiscal years 2024 through 2031, the Secretary, acting through the Bureau of Reclamation, may accept funds from other Federal agencies, including power revenues collected pursuant to the Act of April 11, 1956 (commonly known as the “Colorado River Storage Project Act”) (43 U.S.C. 620 et seq.).
“(B) Availability of funds—Funds made available under subparagraph (A) shall be available for expenditure by the Secretary, as determined by the contributing agency in consultation with the Secretary.
“(C) Treatment of funds—Funds made available under subparagraph (A) shall be treated as nonreimbursable Federal expenditures.
“(D) Treatment of power revenues—Any power revenues accepted under subparagraph (A) shall be treated as having been repaid and returned to the general fund of the Treasury.
“(4) Non-Federal contributions to annual base funding—The Secretary, acting through the Bureau of Reclamation, may accept contributed funds from the Upper Division States, political subdivisions of the Upper Division States, or individuals, entities, or organizations within the Upper Division States, pursuant to agreements that provide for the contributions to be used for annual base funding.
“(5) Replacement power—Contributions of funds made pursuant to this subsection shall not include the cost of replacement power purchased to offset modifications to the operation of the Colorado River Storage Project to benefit threatened or endangered fish species under the Recovery Implementation Programs.”
in subsection (f) (as so redesignated), in the first sentence, by inserting “or threatened” after “endangered”;
in subsection (g) (as so redesignated), by striking “unless the time period for the respective Cooperative Agreement is extended to conform with this Act” and inserting “, as amended or extended”;
in subsection (h) (as so redesignated), in the first sentence, by striking “Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program or the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program” and inserting “Recovery Implementation Programs”; and
in subsection (i)(1) (as so redesignated)—
by striking “2022” each place it appears and inserting “2030”;
by striking “2024” each place it appears and inserting “2031”; and
in subparagraph (C)(ii)(III), by striking “contributions by the States, power customers, Tribes, water users, and environmental organizations” and inserting “non-Federal contributions”.
Repeal of limitation on travel for advocacy purposes— Section 5 of Public Law 106–392 (114 Stat. 1602; 126 Stat. 2445) is repealed.