LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — More than $50 million in unused funds will be redirected toward the repair, restoration, and renovation of Hoover Dam under newly signed federal legislation.
Rep. Susie Lee (D-Nevada) and Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada) joined the chair of the Colorado River Commission to mark the signing of the Help Hoover Dam Act into law.
Where the money comes from
The legislation diverts funds from defunct contractor retirement and disability accounts. Lee said the money had been stranded after the benefits it was originally intended to cover became funded through other sources.
“It was originally collected to support post-retirement benefits for Hoover employees,” Lee said. “However, those benefits are now fully covered by other sources, such as the Civil Services Retirement and Disability Fund. So therefore, this money has just literally been stranded.”
Lee said the hydropower community offered up the funding, and she and Cortez Masto worked to direct it toward the dam.
What the funding covers
The dam is more than 90 years old and requires near-constant maintenance, routine updating, and occasional restoration. Lee said the redirected funds will cover approximately one-fourth of the dam’s projected maintenance costs.
“And let’s be clear, this bill does not require one extra dollar of federal funding,” Lee said. “The money’s already there. It’s sitting in an account ready to be used. And so we now have before us a way to address one-fourth of the dam’s projected maintenance cost.”
Lee said the funding is also an investment in Lake Mead, Southern Nevada’s most essential water source.
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