Congress blocks federal research into dam removal on Snake River
H.R. 2073 — Defending our Dams Act · Filed by Dan Newhouse (R-WA) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 11, 2025 · Hearing held
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What it does
This bill prohibits the federal government from spending money to study, breach, or functionally alter four dams on the Lower Snake River in Washington State (Ice Harbor, Lower Monumental, Little Goose, and Lower Granite). It also requires the Secretary of the Army and the Bonneville Power Administration to jointly approve any spillage operations on these dams. The bill blocks federal funding for dam removal research and technical assistance while centralizing control over dam operations.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a funding prohibition and operational veto that prevents federal research into dam removal and centralizes spillage-operation approval. While framed as 'defending' dams, it functions as a legislative lock-in of current dam operations and a restriction on public investment in studying alternatives.
What the text implies
- Blocks federal funding for environmental impact studies on dam removal, preventing public access to research on salmon restoration tradeoffs and ecosystem recovery.
- Centralizes spillage-operation approval in two federal agencies (Army Corps and Bonneville Power Administration), reducing transparency and public participation in decisions affecting fisheries, power generation, and flood control.
- Prevents the federal government from funding technical assistance for dam removal, effectively locking in current infrastructure even if future analysis shows removal would be cost-effective or environmentally beneficial.
- The 'functional alteration' language may prevent operational changes (e.g., increased spillage for fish passage) without explicit approval from both agencies, creating a de facto veto over adaptive management.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill restricts public investment in studying a major environmental and energy policy question (dam removal on the Snake River), preventing citizens and policymakers from accessing federally-funded research on the tradeoffs between dam operations and salmon restoration. It also centralizes dam-operation decisions in two federal agencies, reducing transparency and public input into spillage operations that affect fisheries, power supply, and flood control.
Who stands to gain
- hydroelectric power generators (Bonneville Power Administration customers)
- irrigation districts dependent on dam water storage
- navigation interests using dam-created reservoirs
Named in the bill
Lower Snake River dams, Ice Harbor Dam, Lower Monumental Dam, Little Goose Dam, Lower Granite Dam, Secretary of the Army, Chief of Engineers, Bonneville Power Administration, Columbia River System, State of Washington
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Republicans.
- Mar 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 11, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment”
- Sep 3, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Hearings Held”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
5 lobbying clients named this bill on 7 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $2,140,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 36 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 78% of bills with at least one filing.
Dan Newhouse, the sponsor, reported $357,704 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (nreca) — $1,750,000 on 2 filings
- Sierra Club — $180,000 on 2 filings
- Trout Unlimited — $120,000 on 1 filing
- Northwest Riverpartners — $50,000 on 1 filing
- Washington Association of Wheat Growers — $40,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,160 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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