Sacramento River Basin Water Security

Current understanding

Federal legislative attention is focused on water security and reliability in California’s Sacramento River Basin, a major agricultural region supporting rice, orchards, and specialty crops that depends on Central Valley Project and state water deliveries. Bills in this area typically address storage, conveyance, and delivery reliability affecting farmers’ irrigation access, downstream fisheries, and regional food production costs. Status: pending — the Doug LaMalfa Sacramento River Basin Water Security and Reliability Act of 2026 has been introduced and referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.

Evidence log

• 2026-06-23 — A bill to direct the Secretary of Agriculture to consider certain acreage not planted due to a lack of irrigation water to be eligible for prevented planting payments, and for other purposes.: cross-connection with prevented-planting-irrigation-water: Both address federal responses to irrigation water shortages affecting Western agriculture; prevented planting eligibility would provide a payment backstop when water security measures fail to deliver adequate supply. (novelty: 2)

Open questions

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