Federal water money can pay to fix old irrigation dams.
S. 1257 — A bill to amend the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to authorize the use of funds for certain additional Carey Act projects, and for other purposes. · Filed by James Risch (R-ID) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Apr 2, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill changes a federal water law. It lets the government pay to fix old dams built under the Carey Act from 1894. The government can rebuild or replace these dams. Private groups built them on public land to water farms. The Secretary of the Interior can use federal money for these dams. This happens only after other water projects get all their money first.
Who it affects
Irrigation districts and farmers may get federal money to fix old dams. The bill may take money away from other water projects.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say which old dams can get money. It also does not say how many dams exist.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Apr 2, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 2, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Jul 29, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- Carey Act — A federal law from 1894 that let private groups build dams on public land to water farms.
- irrigation — Bringing water to farm land through dams, pipes, or ditches.
- Secretary of the Interior — The federal official who runs the Department of the Interior and makes decisions about public land and water.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,531 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-11-01.
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