Trump taps climate-law funds to tackle Western drought

With the Colorado River at record-low levels, the Trump administration is using Inflation Reduction Act funds to extend Biden-era contracts that paid water users to reduce deliveries, while Interior surveys a long backlog of proposed projects totaling more than $50 billion. Experts say meaningful relief requires permanently reducing agricultural water use, but political and legal obstacles make such changes difficult; in the near term, short-term buyouts and fallowing agreements funded by federal dollars continue to flow, illustrating a crisis-driven approach that may not solve the river’s core imbalance.