PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 116-375.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Oct 28, 2019
Western Water Security Act of 2019
This bill addresses water management infrastructure and improvement, groundwater management, and water conservation and environmental restoration in certain western states.
Specifically, the bill increases the authorization of appropriations to fund research agreements between the Bureau of Reclamation and eligible entities for water management improvement. The bill expands eligibility for such agreements to include nonprofit conservation organizations.
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
The bill also reauthorizes through FY2024 a program through which Interior is authorized to assist eligible desalination projects. The bill lowers cost-sharing requirements under the program for rural desalination projects.
Further, the bill allows certain financial assistance made available under an existing drought relief program to be used to assist state and tribal governments in addressing drought-related impacts to water supplies or any other immediate water-related crises. The bill reauthorizes the program through FY2030.
Additionally, the bill increases the maximum federal share of costs for certain infrastructure improvements and activities for groundwater management that provide benefits to consumptive water users (i.e., users of water that is not returned to a stream, river, or water treatment plant) and nonconsumptive ecological or recreational values.
The bill also requires Reclamation to carry out a water acquisition program in specified river basins. Further, Interior must analyze the extent to which changes in water supply will affect native biodiversity and must produce strategies for sustaining native biodiversity during periods of drought.
People & committees
Sen. Udall, Tom [D-NM] · D–NM
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 116-375.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Sep 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.2718 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.2718 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.2718 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.2718 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.