Source: United States Senator for Colorado Michael Bennet
Denver — This week, U.S. Senators Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Chair of the U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee’s Subcommittee on Conservation, Climate, Forestry, and Natural Resources, and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) led fourteen bipartisan senators from across the West in a letter urging the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to give equal importance to the urgent priorities of Western growers and communities through existing authorities, new funding, and collaboration across government.
As farm and ranch families across the American West grapple with a 22-year megadrought, the senators urged USDA to support Western farmers and ranchers as they pursue conservation efforts, improve water infrastructure and efficiency, and protect lands at risk of erosion. They also urged USDA to provide technical assistance for growers in regions affected by drought and to better extend resources and develop tailored solutions through its existing programs to help Western growers address dire drought conditions. The senators conclude the letter by encouraging USDA to collaborate with states and local and Tribal governments and address understaffing at field offices across the West.
Bennet sounded the alarm about the water crisis in the American West in June during the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry’s Subcommittee on Conservation, Climate, Forestry, and Natural Resources’ first hearing since 2013. In August, Bennet worked with U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) to secure $4 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to address drought in the American West. After securing drought provisions in the IRA, Bennet welcomed Deputy Secretary of the Interior Tommy Beaudreau and BOR Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton to view the severe drought conditions in the Colorado River Basin in a fly over, and hosted a listening session with Colorado water users, where they discussed the challenges they have faced due to climate change-fueled drought and how they would like to see the $4 billion in funding for drought from the IRA implemented. In September, Bennet urged BOR to prioritize funding for long-term, permanent solutions to the drought crisis in the Colorado River Basin as it allocates the $4 billion in new funding from the IRA for Western drought. Last year, he secured a historic investment in western water infrastructure in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
The full text of the letter is available HERE.
Here’s what they’re saying about the Bennet-led effort:
CBS Colorado: Sen. Michael Bennet leads group urging USDA to help farmers during critical drought in the West
The drought situation in the West has been critical for more than a year. The Colorado River is at stake along with major reservoirs that have fueled the West for decades.
Now Colorado Democratic Senator Michael Bennet is teaming up with Utah’s Republican Senator Mitt Romney to bring urgency to the impending drought. The two senators led a group of 14 others, urging the USDA to help farmers in the area.
CBS 4: Watch: Senators Bennet and Romney Lead Bipartisan Effort on Western Drought
Colorado Newsline: Senators ask USDA for equal consideration of Western drought needs
U.S. Sens. Michael Bennet, a Colorado Democrat, and Mitt Romney, a Utah Republican, led a bipartisan group of senators in asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to give parity to Western drought needs with existing programs and funding.
In a letter addressed to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack the senators from across the Western states asked for continued resources to support projects for ranchers and farmers to conserve water, improve their infrastructure and efficiency, and provide technical support.
CBS 4: Watch: Senators Bennet and Romney Ask for Drought Help
Colorado Public Radio: Radio Segment
In a letter to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, Bennet, Romney and 13 other Western Senators from Washington to New Mexico are urging the USDA to step up aid to producers in their states in the face of a 22 year drought. The bipartisan group writes “the acute shortage of water for Western growers threatens productive farmland across our states.” They want to see parity in how the department uses its funding to support efforts to conserve water, improve water infrastructure and help producers in the West. They’re also asking for regular briefings to discuss what’s being done to help farmers and ranchers in the region.
FOX 31: Watch: Addressing Drought Issues: Colorado and Utah Senators Write Letter to USDA
Politico Pro: Morning Energy
As broad swaths of the West remain entrenched in a more than two-decade-long drought and the Colorado River basin teeters on the brink of a massive water and power crisis, a group of 15 bipartisan senators led by Mike Bennet (D-Colo.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) is asking Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to make sure their farmers and ranchers don’t get left out of the gush of new conservation funding from the Inflation Reduction Act and bipartisan infrastructure bill.
In a letter to Vilsack this morning, the lawmakers argue that many of the department’s programs don’t translate well to Western agriculture, and that “more creative and tailored solutions” — as well as more staff with expertise in Western water conservation — are needed.
E&E Daily: Western senators urge agency to do more on drought
Western Senators are pressing the Agriculture Department to more aggressively address the impacts of persistent drought on farmers and ranchers in their states.
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D) and Utah Sen. Mitt Romney (R), along with 13 of their Senate colleagues, outlined their concerns in a letter Wednesday to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
Punchbowl: News AM
It’s not often Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) sign onto the same letter. But the massive drought wreaking havoc on the western United States doesn’t respect partisan boundaries. As a result, a bipartisan group of 15 senators are calling on Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to divert appropriate resources to the crisis.
Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah) are leading the effort, which also includes senators from Arizona, Washington, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon.
The Hill: Senators urge Agriculture secretary to help Western states in ’22-year mega-drought’
Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) is leading a letter signed by 14 other senators urging Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to help Western states survive what they are calling a “22-year mega-drought” that is threatening farms and ranches across the West.
“The American West is in crisis. Across the major basins of the American West … farm and ranch families hang in the balance as they grapple with a 22-year mega-drought,” they warned. “The acute shortage of water for Western growers threatens productive farmland across our states, which are both a pillar of our rural economies and drivers of America’s food production.”
The letter is the latest sign of growing economic pressure posed by the changing climate and the competition for federal money to help communities across the country cope with severe weather.
Axios: Generate Newsletter
A bipartisan group of 15 senators, led by Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah), are pressuring the Department of Agriculture to treat the drought-plagued West with “parity” compared to other parts of the country, Andrew writes.
Driving the news: “The American West is in crisis,” they write in a letter to the agency today. “The acute shortage of water for Western growers threatens productive farmland across our states.”
What they’re saying: They call on the USDA to incentivize western landowners to conserve water, and use its programs to help farmers and ranchers facing more than two decades of megadrought.
Agri-Pulse: Daybreak
A group of 15 Western senators sent a letter today to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, requesting that recently approved conservation program funding be “equally” distributed to different parts of the country, including their drought-stricken states.
The letter, led by Sens. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Mitt Romney, R-Utah, calls for the USDA to consider the “contribution of every region” when spending $20 billion for USDA agriculture conservation programs.
Take note: The senators said that the current lack of USDA engineers and experts knowledgeable in water conservation has “delayed many projects for Western growers.” They urged Vilsack to “address the understaffing of USDA field offices” and prioritize hiring Natural Resources Conservation Service staff with expertise in Western production agriculture.