Farming advocates and a Texas congresswoman will testify before a House Appropriators subcommittee this week about the impact of persistent water shortages on their livelihoods, as lawmakers weigh how to require Mexico to meet its own water obligations to the U.S.
The House National Security and Department of State Appropriations Subcommittee (formerly State-Foreign Operations) will meet Tuesday to discuss frustrations with the 1944 Water Treaty, under which the United States and Mexico share water from the Rio Grande and Colorado River.
The panel will focus on Mexico’s looming shortfall on deliveries of flows from the Rio Grande to Texas farmers, which total more than 1.3 million acre-feet ahead of an October deadline.
Under the 1944 treaty, Mexico is supposed to send an average of 350,000 acre-feet of water annually to the United States. The flows are tallied on five-year cycles, for a total of 1.75 million-acre feet.
