[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4253 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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118th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4253

   To ensure that United States diplomats and officials of the U.S. 
Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission are able to 
 advance efforts seeking compliance by the United Mexican States with 
 the 1944 Treaty on Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana 
                     Rivers and of the Rio Grande.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 2, 2024

 Mr. Cruz (for himself and Mr. Cornyn) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To ensure that United States diplomats and officials of the U.S. 
Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission are able to 
 advance efforts seeking compliance by the United Mexican States with 
 the 1944 Treaty on Utilization of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana 
                     Rivers and of the Rio Grande.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) Article 4 of the Treaty on Utilization of Waters of the 
        Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande (the 
        ``Treaty''), signed in 1944 between the United States and the 
        United Mexican States (``Mexico'') requires Mexico to supply to 
        the United States an amount of water annually that ``shall not 
        be less, as an average amount in cycles of five consecutive 
        years, than 350,000 acre-feet (431,721,000 cubic meters)''.
            (2) Irrigation water shortages in the Lower Rio Grande 
        Valley have persisted since the 1990s, and Mexico has 
        exacerbated those conditions by failing to meet its Treaty 
        obligations.
            (3) Mexico is obligated to provide the United States with 
        1,750,000 acre-feet of water by October 2025 for the five-year 
        period beginning on October 2020, but as of March 2024 had 
        delivered less than 400,000 acre-feet of water, a rate that 
        forecloses the possibility of compliance with the Treaty.
            (4) A recent report by the Center for North American 
        Studies estimated that a complete lack of irrigation water for 
        crop production in the Lower Rio Grande Valley in 2024 would 
        result in $495,800,000 in direct revenue loss.
            (5) In 2024, Texas's only sugar mill, the Rio Grande Valley 
        Sugar Growers Mill, closed due to a lack of water made 
        available via the Treaty.
            (6) The United States and Mexico have engaged in 
        negotiations over a Minute to the Treaty to address Mexico's 
        non-compliance, but as of May 1, 2024, the United States and 
        Mexico have not reached agreement on it.

SEC. 2. ADVANCING EFFORTS SEEKING COMPLIANCE BY MEXICO WITH TREATY ON 
              UTILIZATION OF WATERS OF THE COLORADO AND TIJUANA RIVERS 
              AND OF THE RIO GRANDE.

    The Secretary of State shall use the voice, vote, diplomatic 
capital, and resources of the United States to ensure that United 
States diplomats and officials of the U.S. Section of the International 
Boundary and Water Commission are able to advance efforts seeking 
compliance by the United Mexican States with the Treaty on Utilization 
of Waters of the Colorado and Tijuana Rivers and of the Rio Grande, 
signed at Washington February 3, 1944, and to establish understandings 
to provide predictable and reliable future deliveries of water by the 
United Mexican States.
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