https://crsreports.congress.gov
Updated April 2, 2025
Bureau of Reclamation: FY2025 Budget and Appropriations
The Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), part of the
Department of the Interior, is primarily responsible for the
construction and operation of hundreds of large dams and
water diversion structures in the 17 western Reclamation
States, as designated in statute (43 U.S.C. §391).
Reclamation is the largest wholesale supplier of water in
these 17 states and the second-largest hydroelectric power
producer in the nation. Reclamation’s mission areas and
geographic scope are narrower than those of the other
principal federal water resource agency, the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers.
Reclamation’s Water and Related Resources account funds
most agency activities, including construction, operations
and maintenance, dam safety, and Indian water rights
settlements, as well as the agency’s programmatic and grant
authorities (including those for water reuse and recycling,
desalination, conservation and efficiency, and aquatic
ecosystem restoration, among other purposes). Reclamation
typically also receives funding for three smaller accounts:
California Bay-Delta Restoration, the Central Valley
Project Restoration Fund (which is offset by customer
receipts), and Policy and Administration.
FY2025 Budget and Appropriations
The Administration usually requests a lower amount for
Reclamation than the final enacted total of annual
appropriations. For FY2025, President Biden requested
$1.599 billion in current budget authority for Reclamation,
or $301 million less than the $1.900 billion Congress
provided in FY2024 under P.L. 118-42. In FY2025
appropriations, the House Appropriations Committee
recommended $1.929 billion for Reclamation in H.R. 8997,
while the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended
$2.020 billion for the agency in S. 4927. In the Full-Year
Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025 (P.L.
119-4), also referred to as a continuing resolution (CR),
Congress provided Reclamation with a total of $1.860
billion in funding (Figure 1), which is the FY2024 enacted
level minus specified reductions (see below section,
“Additional Funding and “Earmarks”). This amount is
greater than the FY2025 amount that had been proposed by
the Biden Administration for Reclamation but less than
House and Senate Committee-proposed levels.
In addition to regular annual appropriations, Congress has
provided Reclamation with supplemental appropriations
which were expected to augment discretionary funding by
as much as $2.500 billion in FY2025. The Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58) included $8.300
billion total, to be made available in equal installments from
FY2022 to FY2026 (i.e., $1.660 billion per year). P.L. 117-
169 (popularly known as the Inflation Reduction Act of
2022, or IRA) provided Reclamation with $4.590 billion in
funding, including $4.000 billion for western drought
mitigation, with priority given to actions in the Colorado
River Basin. IRA funding is to remain available until
FY2026 or FY2031, depending on the provision.
Reclamation is allocating these funds on a rolling basis.
Figure 1. Reclamation Annual Appropriations,
FY2015-FY2025
Figure is interactive in the HTML version of this report.
Source: CRS, based on FY2015-FY2025 appropriations and FY2025
budget request. Inflation adjustment to FY2023 dollars based on
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) FY2025 Budget, Historical
Table 10.1.
Notes: Amounts do not reflect supplemental funding or offsetting
receipts.
Additional Funding and “Earmarks”
Reclamation’s Water and Related Resources account
consists largely of individual project funding lines. During
the 112
th
-116
th
Congresses, Reclamation appropriations
were subject to general earmark moratoriums that restricted
Congress from funding geographically specific project line
items not requested by the Administration. Instead,
Congress included Additional Funding amounts for selected
categories of Reclamation projects, typically in five
categories: Rural Water, Water Conservation and Delivery,
Environmental Restoration and Compliance, Fish
Passage/Fish Screens, and Facilities Maintenance and
Rehabilitation. The Administration allocated these funds for
specific projects in spend plans made available several
months after enactment of the appropriations bills.
In the 117
th
and 118
th
Congresses, appropriations
recommendations included earmarks (now categorized as
