WASHINGTON – A bill to recover endangered fish species in the Upper Colorado River Basin and San Juan River Basin made it through U.S. Congress on Wednesday in a larger must-pass defense funding bill.
Stakeholders in Southwest Colorado have been waiting for fish recovery funding. If signed by the president, yearly funding for the program will increase. That will allow for fewer cutbacks on projects to increase fish populations, said Steve Wolff, general manager of the Southwestern Water Conservation District.
The National Defense Authorization Act, which is the larger 1,800-page defense funding bill, includes the funding for the fish recovery program in a bill sponsored by U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper.
Hickenlooper’s bill will boost funding for recovering engaged fish to keep pace with inflation, something that hasn’t been happening. Wolff said the program has been stuck at $10 million in funding since 2019, and Hickenlooper’s version of the bill will allow for more funding each year, bringing it to about $11 million to $13 million in its first year.
“This is what we've been asking for, the Senate bill,” Wolff said. “So we're very happy that it's written up in this way.”
A different version of the bill with less funding passed the House in September, which was introduced by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert.
In a written statement about the bill passing, Boebert said she was “thrilled that my fish recovery bill passed the House,” even though it was Hickenlooper’s version of the bill that won final approval.
Drew Sexton, spokesman for Boebert, said the statement referred to Hickenlooper’s bill, which Sexton said they worked on together.
“Ultimately, the dollar amount that Sen. Hickenlooper introduced was the version that made it into the NDAA,” Sexton said. “But I think the rest of the language is very similar and that’s why we said there was a negotiated version of the congresswoman’s bill.”
At the same time, Boebert said she was concerned about the higher funding amount in Hickenlooper’s bill in an interview with The Durango Herald on Dec. 10, which was when the House voted on the NDAA.
“I knew we would have some differences, but I’m happy to see it in the NDAA,” she said. “And we’re going to save these fish and then also save more water for Colorado.”
Local stakeholders such as Wolff and the La Plata County Board of County Commissioners also supported Boebert’s version of the bill in letters addressed to her last summer. Still, the letter said they were concerned about a lack of funding. The letter also cited a House funding rule for not including the extra funding.
Wolff testified in Congress about the importance of the program last summer. He said in past years, projects such as monitoring fish populations, native fish control, hatchery programs and habitat restoration efforts have been cut as a result of a lack of funding.
“It makes up for the funding that they’ve lost over the last few years,” he said. “And again, it has that inflation adjustment factor every year into the new authorization. It lets the programs catch up and then stay appropriate moving forward.”
La Plata County Commissioner Marsha Porter-Norton said she is pleased with the increased funding amount. She said she wrote a letter in support of Boebert’s bill because she is familiar with the issue as a former facilitator for watershed working groups.
Porter-Norton said the recovery of fish species and how water users are regulated is important for the Upper San Juan Basin and the entire Colorado River Basin.
“The way we’re using water in the upper basin is under a microscope in the larger seven basins,” she said. “We need to care about all of it. I did write that letter and still support full funding for those fish-recovery programs.”
The fish recovery program has been in place for over 30 years. Outside of fish conservation, the program allows local groups to use water for activities such as building new dams or power plants.
At the same time, the fish-recovery program funds projects that enable endangered fish populations to increase. Altogether, the program allows water users to carry on as needed without worrying about hurting endangered fish species.
Wolff said the program has proved to be effective. Endangered fish species have been raised in controlled environments and then successfully repopulated riversways. As a result of those projects, the humpback chub’s classification was changed from endangered to threatened.
Because the National Defense Authorization Act covers a wide range of funding, Colorado lawmakers supported the bill for a variety of reasons. Boebert said she voted “yes” on the entire NDAA because it supports pay raises for service members.
“Ensuring our patriotic men and women in uniform have the resources they need to safely accomplish their missions is one of the foremost duties of Congress,” she said in a written statement.
The bill prohibits the Department of Defense from refusing to do business for goods and services with companies that boycott Israel, something else Boebert said she supports.
At a Senate subcommittee hearing on Dec. 11, Hickenlooper spoke in support of the “rip and replace program,” which will be funded by the NDAA. The program reimburses smaller communication providers for the costs of replacing “risky Chinese network equipment.” Hickenlooper said the lack of funding for the program has been “devastating to Colorado.”
He also voted “yes” on the NDAA.
“Many of these are rural carriers and small businesses have not been reimbursed for the cost of replacing this equipment for multiple years,” Hickenlooper said during the subcommittee hearing. “We are delighted that the bipartisan fiscal bill for 2025, National Defense Authorization Act, will finally include a solution to fully fund the rip and replace program.”
Maria Tedesco is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at mtedesco@durangoherald.com.
