Sponsors (2)
Adds Arizona (with a Yuma-basin exception) to the US‑Mexico transboundary aquifer priority list and extends program authorization to FY2026–2036.
The bill extends and clarifies federal-state cooperation to study Arizona–Sonora transboundary aquifers, improving data and local water-management options, but does so at added federal cost and with an exclusion and legal narrowing that could leave some communities out or spark jurisdictional disputes.
Residents in Arizona and adjoining Sonora (including farmers and water utilities) will have extended federal assessment and monitoring of transboundary aquifers through FY2026–2036, providing better water-resource data to support planning and local water-management decisions.
State and local governments in Arizona gain clearer legal scope for participating in transboundary aquifer studies by explicitly adding Arizona (with a defined exception), enabling more targeted cooperation with Mexican counterparts.
Federal taxpayers may face additional costs from reauthorizing the program for 2026–2036 without an explicit appropriation amount specified.
Narrowing the exception for the Yuma groundwater basin could create jurisdictional disputes among state, federal, and Mexican authorities over which aquifers receive assessment and cooperation.
Communities within the excluded Yuma groundwater basin may be left out of bilateral assessment benefits despite being adjacent to transboundary aquifers, reducing potential improvements in water-management data for those residents and users.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Official title: Amend the United States-Mexico Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act to reauthorize the United States-Mexico transboundary aquifer assessment program, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 22, 2026 by Mark Edward Kelly · Last progress June 22, 2026
Amends the United States–Mexico Transboundary Aquifer Assessment Act to add Arizona to the list of States with priority transboundary aquifers (with a limited exclusion for the Yuma groundwater basin), extends the program authorization period to fiscal years 2026–2036, and updates a terminology reference to the Act’s short title. The change keeps the assessment program active for another decade, expands the geographic footprint to include Arizona aquifers (except the specified Yuma basin portion), and makes a technical wording update to the sunset/reference language.