United States S 3737: GROW SMART Act

Bill Text

II 
119THCONGRESS 
2
DSESSION 
S. 3737 
To  amend  the  Reclamation  States  Emergency  Drought  Relief  Act  of  1991  
to  provide  financial  and  technical  assistance  to  eligible  entities  for  the  
conduct  of  innovative  approaches  to  voluntary  water  partnership  agree-
ments  among  multiple  water  users  and  projects  conducted  by  individual  
agricultural entities, and for other purposes. 
IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  
JANUARY29, 2026 
Mr. P
ADILLAintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 
to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 
A  BILL  
To  amend  the  Reclamation  States  Emergency  Drought  Relief  
Act  of  1991  to  provide  financial  and  technical  assistance  
to   eligible   entities   for   the   conduct   of   innovative   ap-
proaches   to   voluntary   water   partnership   agreements   
among  multiple  water  users  and  projects  conducted  by  
individual  agricultural  entities,  and  for  other  purposes.  
Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Growing Resilient Op-4
erations  from  Water  Saving  and  Municipal-Agricultural  5
VerDate Sep 11 2014     20:27 Jan 31, 2026    Jkt 069200    PO 00000    Frm 00001    Fmt 6652    Sfmt 6201    E:\BILLS\S3737.IS    S3737
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB

2 
•S  3737  IS
Reciprocally-beneficial  Transactions  Act’’  or  the  ‘‘GROW  1
SMART Act’’. 2
SEC.  2.  PROJECT  PLANNING  IN  SUPPORT  OF  INNOVATIVE  3
VOLUNTARY  WATER  SHARING  AGREEMENTS  4
AND   VOLUNTARY   USE   OF   WATER-THRIFTY   5
CROPS. 6
Title   II   of   the   Reclamation   States   Emergency   7
Drought  Relief  Act  of  1991  (43  U.S.C.  2221  et  seq.)  is  8
amended by inserting after section 201 the following: 9
‘‘SEC.  201A.  PROJECT  PLANNING  IN  SUPPORT  OF  INNOVA-10
TIVE  VOLUNTARY  WATER  SHARING  AGREE-11
MENTS   AND   VOLUNTARY   USE   OF   WATER-   12
THRIFTY  CROPS  TO  PREPARE  FOR  AND  RE-13
SPOND TO DROUGHT. 14
‘‘(a)  I
NGENERAL.—The  Secretary,  in  order  to  pre-15
pare  for  and  respond  to  drought  conditions,  may,  using  16
funds made available to carry out this title and under sub-17
section  (g),  provide  to  qualified  applicants  technical  and  18
financial  assistance  to  provide  planning  support  for  the  19
implementation  of  voluntary  projects  incorporating  inno-20
vative approaches that— 21
‘‘(1)(A)  keep  agricultural  land  in  production;  22
and 23
‘‘(B)  support  income  and  employment  levels  in  24
rural communities; 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014     20:27 Jan 31, 2026    Jkt 069200    PO 00000    Frm 00002    Fmt 6652    Sfmt 6201    E:\BILLS\S3737.IS    S3737
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB

3 
•S  3737  IS
‘‘(2)  provide  affordable  water  supplies,  redun-1
dant  water  supplies,  shared  storage,  or  other  bene-2
fits; and 3
‘‘(3)  rely  over  the  long  term  on  sources  other  4
than Federal funding for implementation. 5
‘‘(b)  D
ESCRIPTION  OFINNOVATIVEAPPROACH.—An 6
innovative approach referred to in subsection (a)— 7
‘‘(1) shall— 8
‘‘(A) be new; or 9
‘‘(B)  lack  a  well-established  track  record  in  10
the applicable area; 11
‘‘(2) shall include an approach that— 12
‘‘(A)   insulates   agricultural   water   users   13
from  the  risk  of  crop  failures  or  water  short-14
ages  through  voluntary  financial,  water  storage,  15
or  water  sharing  agreements  between  at  least  1  16
party  described  in  subsection  (c)(1)(A)(i)  and  1  17
party described in subsection (c)(1)(A)(ii); 18
‘‘(B)  brings  water-saving  commodities  or  19
practices into production; or 20
‘‘(C)  involves  voluntary  methods  for  reduc-21
ing  agricultural  consumptive  water  use,  includ-22
ing— 23
‘‘(i) hydroponics; 24
‘‘(ii) agrovoltaics; 25
VerDate Sep 11 2014     20:27 Jan 31, 2026    Jkt 069200    PO 00000    Frm 00003    Fmt 6652    Sfmt 6201    E:\BILLS\S3737.IS    S3737
kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB

4 
•S  3737  IS
‘‘(iii) agroforestry; 1
‘‘(iv)     innovative     irrigation     tech-2
nologies,  including  gravity-powered  drip  ir-3
rigation  and  automated  high-efficiency  sur-4
face irrigation; 5
‘‘(v)   root-zone-based   irrigation   man-6
agement systems; 7
‘‘(vi)   implementation   of   regenerative   8
agricultural   practices   that   decrease   net   9
water consumption; or 10
‘‘(vii) concentration of crop production 11
on  a  reduced  irrigated  acreage  that  results  12
in  an  equal  or  greater  financial  return;  and  13
‘‘(3) shall not include an approach that— 14
‘‘(A) fallows agricultural land for— 15
‘‘(i)  the  majority  of  the  growing  sea-16
son in the applicable area; or 17
‘‘(ii)   in   the   case   of   a   drought-year   18
agreement,  is  reasonably  anticipated  to  re-19
sult  in  fallowing  for  the  majority  of  years  20
under the drought-year agr