In recent years, the parties proposing Indian water settlements have struggled to find federal funding, and budget offsets, to pay for settlement projects. But a concurrent resolution by the House and Senate Budget Committee may pave a smoother path for funding Indian water settlements and other water management projects. Relevant section is as follows:

SEC. 4316. SPENDING-NEUTRAL RESERVE FUND FOR WATER RESOURCES LEGISLATION.
The Chairman of the Committee on the Budget of the Senate may revise the allocations of a committee or committees, aggregates, and other appropriate levels in this resolution for one or more bills, joint resolutions, amendments, amendments between the Houses, motions, or conference reports relating to improving flood control, expanding opportunities for commercial navigation, and improving the environmental restoration of the nation’s waterways, assisting the States in carrying out drought prevention plans, strengthening waterborne commerce in the Nation’s ports and harbors, or relating to the authority of the Secretary of the Interior to designate funds for rural water projects and Indian irrigation and water settlement projects, without raising new revenue, by the amounts provided in such legislation for those purposes, provided that such legislation would not increase the deficit over either the period of the total of fiscal years 2016 through 2020 or the period of the total of fiscal years 2016 through 2025.

Link to the Concurrent Resolution on the Budget for Fiscal Year 2016 <http://www.budget.senate.gov/republican/public/index.cfm?a=Files.Serve&File_id=5389a308-6d7b-45fc-b8e7-e6db453eaf9a>