Boebert claims to be Western Slope water champion for bills she voted against

Last week, U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO)’s office sent out a press release that contained the following sentence: “Congresswoman Boebert is a strong advocate for rural water storage projects, and in the House FY 2023 appropriations package, she secured $229.26 million for water conservation and delivery projects and an additional $50 million for rural water projects that will help combat western drought.”

However, according to records from the House of Representatives, H. R. 2617 – an appropriations bill which allocated spending for the 2023 fiscal year – passed a vote mostly along party lines in December. Lauren Boebert was one of 200 house Republicans who voted not to pass the bill.

This is becoming something of a yearly pattern: last year, the Durango Herald reported that Boebert took credit for nine funding wins, coming from an appropriations bill that she also voted against.

Boebert seems to be aware of the discrepancy, too. In a press release at the end of December, Boebert congratulated herself for working to secure funding for water conservation in H. R. 2617, while acknowledging that she voted against the bill.

“While I could not ultimately vote for this appropriations package due to Democrat poison pills included in the legislation, I worked hard behind the scenes with the House Appropriations Committee to ensure that twenty-two of my legislative provisions were included in the bill and signed into law,” Boebert said in the December press release. 

Asked for comment, Boebert’s press office provided a letter written to Boebert from U.S. Rep. Kay Granger (R-TX), who was the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee at the time. The letter details Boebert’s requests to fund these rural water projects, which would later be accommodated in the final version of the appropriations package. Still, the work she put into getting her funding goals into the package did not stop her from ultimately voting against it.

Water issues are a pressing concern for Boebert’s constituents in the Western Slope, with much of the state caught in an ongoing drought, with conditions exacerbated by global climate change. As of this year, that drought has eased, but experts say that long-term policy changes are still necessary for Colorado to make a full recovery from previous years.

The press release also brings up Boebert’s support for a Montezuma County project to remove nonnative tamarisk and Russian olive trees, which are believed to consume significant amounts of water. In April 2022, Boebert wrote a letter to Congress in support of the county’s pilot program to remove these plants and replace them with native ones. 

Boebert has also introduced various bills concerning water rights, primarily involving blocking “federal water grabs.” Though she presents these bills as part of a successful record, they have largely failed before making it out of their committee assignments.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on the Colorado Times Recorder website.