27/09/2022
Learning the art of advocacy - US-style
I am fortunate to have fantastic clients across the public and private sectors, both in Aotearoa and overseas. One client is Water Strategies LLC, an advocacy and publishing company based in Washington, DC. I provide services and advice to Water Strategies’ clients and am the Contributing Editor for their Irrigation Leader New Zealand edition magazine.
I have just returned home from a trip to Washington where I worked with the Water Strategies team—to both learn from them and support their work with clients on Capitol Hill. This included helping teach a college intern class on lobbying and advocacy, meeting staff and elected members in both the Senate and House, discussing Colorado River drought issues and funding programmes with officials at the Bureau of Reclamation, attending a meeting of the Federal Affairs Committee of the National Water Resources Association, and helping plan a New Zealand to Washington intern exchange programme.
I am very grateful to Reinke Irrigation for having me tag along on the Hill as they met with officials to promote the role of precision irrigation in sustainable food and fibre production—in evermore challenging and uncertain environmental conditions.
A highlight was meeting Senator Deb Fischer, representing the State of Nebraska.
Senator Fischer is an advocate for the role sustainable water use and precision agriculture can play in producing food for an increasingly hungry world. An example is the S. 2750 bill which she introduced in the Senate. The bill seeks to amend the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act 2008 by establishing a Precision Agriculture Loan Program (not a typo, that’s the American spelling!).
If enacted, the bill would direct the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a programme for providing farmers and growers with loan funding to purchase precision agriculture equipment. Loans of up to US$500,000 will be available to allow investments in equipment, including satellite imagery, soil mapping, advanced data analytics, variable rate technology, among others. The aim is to help reduce crop and livestock production inputs (such as fertiliser, water, chemicals, and time) in order to improve efficiencies and reduce waste—whilst maintaining or increasing yields and improving environmental outcomes.
This is a fantastic initiative, and I will watch the progress of the Senator’s bill with interest. Perhaps this is something we could consider in New Zealand, particularly given the increasing costs of infrastructure, technology, and farm inputs.
Another major announcement was made whilst I was in the States. On 14 September, the Bureau of Reclamation published the first funding opportunity for its Small Storage Program. The programme was established under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to promote federal (central government) assistance to enhance water storage opportunities (including small surface storage, groundwater storage, and conveyance projects) to support future generations.
To be eligible, projects must have a planned storage capacity of between 2.5 and 37 million cubic metres. The competitive grant funding is available for projects in Alaska, Hawaii, and the 17 western states for up to 25 percent of eligible project costs, with no more than US$30 million available per project. Up to US$100 million will be available for the next five years.
As well as wearing out my shoes walking around the Capitol offices, I was lucky enough to get some sightseeing done. Seeing the monuments around Washington, DC, was a lifetime dream come true for a politics geek like me. Other highlights included a schooner trip on the Chesapeake Bay, sitting behind the dugout at a Nationals’ baseball game, seeing the musical Hamilton at the Kennedy Center, and visiting the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Thanks so much Washington, DC, and Water Strategies LLC; I can’t wait to visit you again!
