Organizations representing hundreds of agricultural and urban water agencies have called on President Bush to reverse years of declining budgets for the Bureau of Reclamation, an agency that operates scores of federal irrigation, flood-control and hydroelectric projects in 17 western states.

Eight western water groups asked the President to send Congress a plan to increase the bureau's project and program funding to $1 billion annually by fiscal 2005. The groups said that the increase is necessary to ensure progress for water needs, and to head off water shortages. The following groups participated in this project: Western Coalition of Arid States, WateReuse Association, Family Farm Alliance, National Urban Agriculture Council, National Water Resources Association, Association of California Water Agencies, Oregon Water Resources Congress and Idaho Water Users Association.