Update From Washington, D.C.
Senate Leaders Reach Deal on Short-Term Debt Hike; Senate Panel Meets to Discuss Drought in the West
October 7, 2021
Senate Leaders Reach Deal on Short-Term Debt Hike
Faced with an October 18 deadline to suspend or boost the nation’s borrowing limit, Congress is poised to advance legislation that would provide a temporary increase in the debt ceiling. The emerging bill, which reflects terms put forth by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), would raise the country’s credit limit through December 3, which is when the current stopgap budget measure is set to expire.
While Senate Republicans are not expected to vote for final passage, McConnell has indicated that Republicans will not filibuster the measure as long as Democrats specify the amount of funds that the Treasury Department will need to borrow to keep the country’s finances in good standing. Draft bill text released by Democratic congressional leaders puts the requisite amount of funds at $480 billion.
Looking ahead, Minority Leader McConnell has made it clear that Republicans will oppose a long-term debt limit increase and has warned his Democratic colleagues that they will need to use the filibuster-proof budget reconciliation process to advance such a bill. For their part, Senate Democrats are continuing to insist that they will not utilize reconciliation procedures to do so. The stalemate sets up another fiscal showdown beginning in late November.
Senate Panel Meets to Discuss Drought in the West
On October 6, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Water and Power held an oversight hearing to examine the status and management of drought in the West. Testifying before the panel was Assistant Secretary for Water and Science at the Department of the Interior, Tanya Trujillo, among others. In her testimony, Secretary Trujillo provided an update on the current reservoir and water storage conditions in the West, as well as a snapshot of some of the actions that the Department has taken to provide technical and financial assistance to impacted areas.
With regard to California, Trujillo acknowledged that the Bureau of Reclamation has worked closely with the Department of Water Resources to accommodate the voluntary transfer of non-project water. These transfers have provided flexibility, particularly in dry years, to allow irrigation districts to adjust to changing conditions. In addition, Reclamation has deployed facility features to preserve cold water for fish and enhance hatchery capabilities, deployed monitoring programs to collect data, implemented an emergency pulse flow on Clear Creek to benefit spring-run Chinook salmon, released stored water from New Melones Reservoir for Delta outflow requirements, and facilitated groundwater pumping programs in the Upper Sacramento River Valley to meet irrigation demands and preserve storage in the Shasta reservoir.
Trujillo also outlined the role of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), which conducts monitoring, modeling, and assessments that are used to address drought challenges. For its part, USGS operates a stream gage network in the Bay-Delta that provides real-time data for federal and State water projects. USGS also conducts extensive monitoring of land subsidence in the San Joaquin Valley. According to Assistant Secretary Trujillo’s testimony, USGS is working to apply novel modeling tools and a USGS-developed drought metric to quantify impacts of the “disappearing snowpack.” USGS is also conducting assessments of ecological drought impacts of wildfire on water resources and aquatic ecosystems in California.