On Thursday, July 20, 2017, the full Senate Committee on Appropriations approved the FY2018 Agriculture Appropriations bill and FY2018 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. In his opening statement, Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-Mississippi) stated that the FY 2018 Agriculture Appropriations bill does a good job of increasing funding where necessary, even under relatively tough constraints, and that the Committee should move forward using FY2017 funding until a new budget agreement is reached. Senators from both sides of the aisle highlighted rural development programs supported by the bill, including watershed management, wastewater disposal, low-income housing loans, and farm ownership and operating loans. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), Ranking Member of Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee, raised an amendment that would increase funding for rural development and conservation programs. The Merkley Amendment provided funding for emergency forest restoration programs, broadband investment, and single-family housing loans, but Subcommittee Chairman John Hoeven (R-North Dakota) pushed Republicans to reject the amendment because it exceeded the bill’s budget constraints.
The Senate Appropriations Committee also approved the FY2018 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), praised the bill for including provisions that will improve and maintain waterways, and thanked Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein’s office for its cooperation on the bill. Before the bill was approved, the Committee passed an amendment introduced by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Montana) calling for farmers participating in pilot programs to be allowed to use water passing through federal water projects to irrigate or cultivate their crops.