{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://fulcher.house.gov/2025/03/12/id-361f0217-d2a0-45c3-a434-9850e08cc8d7/", "Fulcher Joins Effort to Protect Lower Snake River Dams", "2025-03-12", "2025", "2025-03", "Republican", "House", "ID", "Russ Fulcher", "F000469", "fulcher.house.gov", "fulcher", "https://fulcher.house.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:\n\nCONTACT: Christiann\u00e9 Allen, Christianne.Allen@mail.house.gov\n\nCONTACT: Marisa Melton, Marisa.Melton@mail.house.gov\n\nFulcher Joins Effort to Protect Lower Snake River Dams\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2014 Today, Congressman Russ Fulcher (ID-01) became an original co-sponsor of H.R. 2073, the Defending Our Dams Act, H.R. 2074, the Protecting Our Water Energy Resource (POWER) Act, and H.R. 2072. The legislative package, introduced by Congressman Dan Newhouse (WA-04), will protect the Lower Snake River Dams and strengthen hydropower as a reliable, affordable source of base load energy.\n\n\u201cI am proud to be an original co-sponsor of this package of legislation,\u201d said Congressman Fulcher. \u201cThe importance of the Lower Snake River Dams and the power they generate has never been clearer. Not only do they provide an essential maritime highway to navigate the export of key goods around the world, but they also provide immense value to Idahoans, our economy, and the greater Northwest.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe Lower Snake River dams are the foundation of our region\u2019s energy security and are vital to deliver agriculture exports to foreign markets,\u201d said Congressman Newhouse. \u201cWithout the dams, our region would suffer severe economic consequences and rolling blackouts during times of extreme weather. This package of legislation strengthens hydropower\u2019s position as a reliable, affordable source of energy, and I am proud to lead the coalition to protect these critical pieces of infrastructure.\u201d\n\nBackground:\n\nH.R. 2072 will require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to extend the time period during which licensees are required to commence construction of certain hydropower projects.\n\nThis legislation allows the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to extend licenses for certain hydropower projects. Specifically, it allows hydropower projects that have received a license to construct to extend the time in which they can begin construction for up to an additional 6 years.\n\nH.R. 2073, the Defending Our Dams Act, protects the Lower Snake River dams while ensuring that safeguards are implemented to protect ratepayers and the greater Pacific Northwest economy from the irreparable harm that would occur if the dams were breached.\n\nThe legislation also prohibits the use of federal funds from being used in breaching, studying the breaching of, or altering the Lower Snake River Dams, and does not allow spillage operations on any of the Lower Snake River dams unless such operations are approved by the Secretary of the Army and the Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration.\n\nFull bill text can be found HERE.\n\nH.R. 2074, the Protecting Our Water Energy Resource (POWER) Act, protects ratepayers and the economy from the irreparable harm that would occur if a hydroelectric dam was breached, or energy generation source was removed from the grid, by prohibiting the Department of the Interior and the United States Army Corps of Engineers from retiring an energy generation source if that retirement would raise customer electricity rates and decrease regional energy reliability by more than five percent.\n\nThe legislation would prohibit the breaching of federally operated dams if such action would result in an increase in carbon emissions by more than five percent, would negatively impact navigation for commerce, and would result in an increase of at least five percent of the cost of goods being shipped.\n\nFull bill text can be found HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T00:15:27Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://fulcher.house.gov/2025/03/12/id-361f0217-d2a0-45c3-a434-9850e08cc8d7/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8883606642484665, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}