Congress extends Columbia River cleanup funding through 2030
S. 2415 — Columbia River Clean-Up Act of 2025 · Filed by Jeff Merkley (D-OR) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Jul 23, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill extends the Columbia River Basin Restoration program's authorization from 2020–2021 through 2026–2030, allowing continued federal funding and activity for water pollution cleanup and restoration in the Columbia River Basin. The bill does not create new programs or change the program's scope—it simply renews its legal authority to operate for five additional years.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a straightforward reauthorization of an existing federal water pollution control and ecosystem restoration program. It extends the program's legal authority and funding window without substantive policy changes.
What the text implies
- The bill does not specify funding amounts; appropriations will be determined separately, so actual program scope depends on future budget decisions.
- Reauthorization extends the program but does not mandate new cleanup targets or timelines—implementation remains subject to existing program rules and agency discretion.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill extends a water pollution control and ecosystem restoration program that benefits public health, fisheries, and environmental quality in the Columbia River Basin. Renewal of the program's authorization allows continued federal investment in cleanup and restoration without interruption.
Named in the bill
Columbia River Basin, Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act), 33 U.S.C. § 123(d)(6), Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 2 Democrats.
- Jul 23, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jul 23, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 3 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $3,130,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 12 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 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Jeff Merkley, the sponsor, reported $507,925 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company — $3,130,000 on 3 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 18, 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 (246 characters) on Sep 27, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 15,316 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 18, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-27.
“Congress extends Columbia River cleanup funding through 2030” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s2415 Report an error