Colorado River states' conservation funds now earn interest in federal account
S. 291 — Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program Amendment Act of 2025 · Filed by Alex Padilla (D-CA) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Jan 29, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill creates an interest-bearing Treasury account to hold non-Federal (state) contributions to the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program, a water management and environmental protection effort. States that contribute to the program's costs will have their money earn interest in this dedicated account, and both the principal and interest will be available for the program's operations without requiring a separate congressional appropriation each time.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a technical amendment to improve the financial management of an existing multi-state water conservation program by establishing an interest-bearing account for state contributions, enabling better resource stewardship without policy change.
What the text implies
- Interest earnings on state contributions increase the program's effective budget without new state appropriations, potentially allowing expanded conservation work or longer program duration.
- The bill removes investment risk from states by specifying that states are not responsible for losses on Treasury-invested funds, shifting that risk to the federal government.
- By making fund balances available without further appropriation, the bill reduces administrative friction and allows faster response to conservation needs.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill improves the financial efficiency of a multi-state water conservation program by allowing state contributions to earn interest, increasing available resources for environmental protection and species conservation on the Colorado River without imposing new costs on citizens or reducing public protections.
Named in the bill
Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program, Secretary of the Treasury, State Parties (Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming), Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, Non-Federal Funding Account
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 5 Democrats.
- Jan 29, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 29, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.”
- Feb 4, 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.
Money around this bill
4 lobbying clients named this bill on 7 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $580,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 9 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 72% of bills with at least one filing.
Alex Padilla, the sponsor, reported $176,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — $380,000 on 2 filings
- Central Arizona Water Conservation District (cawcd) — $140,000 on 2 filings
- Colorado River Commission of Nevada — $40,000 on 2 filings
- Coachella Valley Water District — $20,000 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 (3,092 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.
“Colorado River states' conservation funds now earn interest in federal account” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s291 Report an error
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