A week after being grilled over the Obama administration's environmentally focused Western water policies, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Michael Connor will appear before another Republican-led House panel to answer tough questions about the agency's budget.

The House Appropriations subpanel on energy and water development will hear testimony Thursday from Connor and Reed Murray, director of the Central Utah Project Compliance Act Office, which oversees the Central Utah Project, one of the largest and most complex water resource development projects ever undertaken by Reclamation.

Republicans are expected to look for ways to make a deeper cut in Reclamation's budget than the 10 percent reduction sought by the Obama administration for fiscal 2012.

But last week's Reclamation budget hearing strayed far off the numbers course, veering into a philosophical debate over what was more important: the administration's environmental goal of reviving the imperiled delta of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers with additional water flows or providing greater water deliveries to the thirsty, sprawling farms of California's Central Valley (E&E Daily, March 3).

Those discussions may be revived by House appropriators Thursday.

Chief among the questions posed by California lawmakers are why the agency has delivered just 50 percent of farmers' water allocations following a massive snow season. Connor defended Reclamation's decision, noting that the Central Valley farms have not received their full water allocation in more than 20 years and that a 50 percent allocation at this point in the year represents an above-average delivery. Typically, 46 percent would have been delivered this time of year, Connor told lawmakers.

"We're a conservative bunch over at the Bureau of Reclamation," he said.

Schedule: The hearing is Thursday, March 10, at 10 a.m. in 2362-B Rayburn.

Witnesses: Commissioner of Reclamation Michael Connor; and Reed Murray, director of the Central Utah Project Compliance Act Office.