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HIGHLIGHTS
On June 26, the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure released text for WRDA 2026. The House proposed structural and programmatic changes to enhance water supply, storage, and drought resiliency, including a new Office of Water Supply, Water Conservation, and Drought Resiliency and a Continuing Authority Program for local drought resiliency projects. The bill addresses flood risk through a new Levee Owners Board, expanded floodplain management technical assistance, and a new CAP for flood risk management project modifications. Western-specific provisions include expanded FIRO deployment at California and Idaho/Washington sites, multiple aquifer and river basin studies, and reauthorization of the Rio Grande Environmental Management Program.
On June 23, Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Boozman (R-AR) released the Agricultural Act of 2026 on June 23 ahead of conference negotiations with the House, though the bill faces an uncertain path to passage due to unresolved disagreements over nutrition spending, conservation fund reallocation, and other policy differences. Title II conservation provisions substantially track the House bill—reauthorizing CRP, EQIP, RCPP, and other programs through 2031—while going further in several areas, including doubling the Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act federal project cap to $50M, raising the EQIP water conservation and irrigation efficiency cap to $2M, and waiving acreage limits for large-scale Western drought initiatives. Notably, both chambers’ EQIP reauthorizations include a reallocation of nearly $1B in previously provided EQIP funding to other conservation priorities, a significant reduction to the program’s baseline. Title VI are notably stronger in the Senate draft, doubling Water and Waste Disposal grant authorizations, increasing Rural Water Circuit Rider funding, and creating new programs for cybersecurity assistance and emergency preparedness for rural water systems.
On June 24, the Western Landowners Alliance hosted a discussion on recent BLM and USFS grazing reforms, including a March 2026 MOU between the two agencies to streamline and harmonize grazing management policies across shared jurisdictions. Panelists broadly supported proposed rule updates—including greater permittee flexibility, use of virtual fencing and remote sensing, and clarified state-law-aligned water rights administration—viewing them as an overdue modernization of policies largely unchanged since 1995. However, participants raised significant concern about severe federal land management agency understaffing, with one panelist noting that Nevada’s approximately 600 BLM staff are responsible for 48 million acres, roughly one person per 80,000 acres.
PEOPLE
Anna Pakenham Stevenson has resigned from the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, with Trevor Watson, Acting Division Administrator of the Water Division, stepping in to fill her seat on the Council.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
WSWC Virtual Summer (210th) Meetings
The Western States Water Council will hold its 210th Meetings virtually on July 14–16, 2026. Webinars on various topics of interest will be scheduled for June, July, and August. The WSWC is hosting supplemental webinars alongside its July 13-16 Virtual Summer Meetings, offering optional technical presentations.
The Summer Series schedule is as follows:
WATCH RECORDING June 16th at 12:00 pm MDT–– (WestFAST) NASA’s Water Resources Program: Supporting Water
Management in the U.S. West and Beyond, Perry Oddo and Sean Fleming
July 9th at 1:00 pm MDT– (WestFAST) Overview of Water Rights Litigation Nation Wide, Stephen
Bartell, Department of Justice.
July 22nd at 11:00 am MDT– (WSWC) Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations: National Screening Update, Cary Talbot, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Additional agenda details and registration will be posted as they become available at the link below: