War Funding Bills And Nevada Agriculture
By: Doug Busselman, Executive Vice President
The U.S. Senate wrapped up their voting and gave approval to the next round of funding authority for the wars we are engaged in and the $105.9 Billion measure is now on the way to the President’s desk for his approval. You might wonder why someone who is mostly focused on Nevada agriculture would pay much attention to a war-funding bill (as they appear to be called in Washington, D.C.-speak).
Several years ago we were involved in the details surrounding a war-funding bill and the process left a lasting impression.
In the 2002 Farm Bill, Nevada’s senior U.S. Senator Harry Reid included a funding provision for $200 million to be used for a “Desert Lakes” program, with the money going to the Bureau of Reclamation. There was no “Desert Lakes” program until the $200 million got dumped in.
Along with the money there were safeguards installed which prohibited the money from being used for purchase of private land or water rights.
A couple of years later, as part of a funding bill for the Afghanistan and Iran wars, Senator Reid inserted a proposal for $70 million to come from the $200 million “Desert Lakes” program to go to the Nevada University System to fund the establishment of “a world class research facility”. The money was to be used for buying land and appurtenant water rights to be used for the “world class research facility”.
Now stuffing special pork funding into “must pass” bills (like war-funding measures) is pretty common. The bill that passed the Senate yesterday included $1 billion for the “cash for clunkers” program – where Uncle Sam is going to give anyone $4,500 in vouchers to upgrade from their older car for more fuel efficient rides. (I guess since nationalizing a car company or two, our national government is thinking that marketing cars is now a national priority too.)
Anyway, the attempt to slip the $70 million into the war-funding bill that time around didn’t work out. With the help of some other state’s Senator we were able to prevent the money from being included in the bill – (actually, now that I think of it, we spend quite a bit of time looking to work with other states’ Senators trying to protect Nevada agriculture from the ideas that ours have been coming up with…)
The next fall, when the appropriation bills went through the $70 million was put in there and our University System got into the water and land buying business. They decided that the “world class” research facility could actually be a “virtual” one so the land and water that the buy for the project doesn’t have to be used for the operations of the “world class” facility… University officials have now taken on the approach – “if people just want to sell us their water rights – that would be just fine.”
The water they acquire (depending on the pending Environmental Impact Statement) will be just sent down to Walker Lake for eventual evaporation.
In reading the news account of the June 18th war-funding bill, I noticed that President Obama says this will be the last one like this. There have been 17 others, totaling $882 Billion, but from now on (at least as of yesterday) the plan is to actually use the budget process to spend funds like this, instead of special “must pass” bills.
I guess I’ll have to find something else to get nostalgic about…
The U.S. Senate wrapped up their voting and gave approval to the next round of funding authority for the wars we are engaged in and the $105.9 Billion measure is now on the way to the President’s desk for his approval. You might wonder why someone who is mostly focused on Nevada agriculture would pay much attention to a war-funding bill (as they appear to be called in Washington, D.C.-speak).
Several years ago we were involved in the details surrounding a war-funding bill and the process left a lasting impression.
In the 2002 Farm Bill, Nevada’s senior U.S. Senator Harry Reid included a funding provision for $200 million to be used for a “Desert Lakes” program, with the money going to the Bureau of Reclamation. There was no “Desert Lakes” program until the $200 million got dumped in.
Along with the money there were safeguards installed which prohibited the money from being used for purchase of private land or water rights.
A couple of years later, as part of a funding bill for the Afghanistan and Iran wars, Senator Reid inserted a proposal for $70 million to come from the $200 million “Desert Lakes” program to go to the Nevada University System to fund the establishment of “a world class research facility”. The money was to be used for buying land and appurtenant water rights to be used for the “world class research facility”.
Now stuffing special pork funding into “must pass” bills (like war-funding measures) is pretty common. The bill that passed the Senate yesterday included $1 billion for the “cash for clunkers” program – where Uncle Sam is going to give anyone $4,500 in vouchers to upgrade from their older car for more fuel efficient rides. (I guess since nationalizing a car company or two, our national government is thinking that marketing cars is now a national priority too.)
Anyway, the attempt to slip the $70 million into the war-funding bill that time around didn’t work out. With the help of some other state’s Senator we were able to prevent the money from being included in the bill – (actually, now that I think of it, we spend quite a bit of time looking to work with other states’ Senators trying to protect Nevada agriculture from the ideas that ours have been coming up with…)
The next fall, when the appropriation bills went through the $70 million was put in there and our University System got into the water and land buying business. They decided that the “world class” research facility could actually be a “virtual” one so the land and water that the buy for the project doesn’t have to be used for the operations of the “world class” facility… University officials have now taken on the approach – “if people just want to sell us their water rights – that would be just fine.”
The water they acquire (depending on the pending Environmental Impact Statement) will be just sent down to Walker Lake for eventual evaporation.
In reading the news account of the June 18th war-funding bill, I noticed that President Obama says this will be the last one like this. There have been 17 others, totaling $882 Billion, but from now on (at least as of yesterday) the plan is to actually use the budget process to spend funds like this, instead of special “must pass” bills.
I guess I’ll have to find something else to get nostalgic about…
Posted by Doug Busselman at 6/19/2009 5:05 AM 
Categories: Walker River
Tags: Walker River Basin Project Nevada Congress
Categories: Walker River
Tags: Walker River Basin Project Nevada Congress
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