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A panel of the House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a $37.4 billion bill to fund the Department of Energy and federal water programs for fiscal 2017.

At a short meeting, lawmakers on the panel spoke briefly about the legislation, but reserved any amendment proposals for the committee consideration or for the House floor.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) characterized the bill as a responsible proposal that prioritizes defense and nuclear weapons priorities and fossil fuel research and development while reining in President Obama’s clean energy agenda.

With that simple, four-word sentence, a new academic study emphasizes the important links between surface water and groundwater storage in the West, and the need for the two forms of storage to complement each other in tackling chronic water shortages.

The study was published last month in the journal Environmental Research Letters and was led by geologists from the University of Texas, with participation from U.S. Geological Survey researchers from California and Arizona. It looked specifically at how to enhance drought resilience in those two states.

In 1952, the newly formed country of Israel faced a number of critical issues: The country had no money and was accepting new immigrants at a rate that was doubling its size.

The government — with main priorities of security, immigration and water — made the unlikely decision to spend what would end up being billions of dollars building a water system that would transport treated sewage to agriculture and other uses. The program took 30 years to complete.

Well over half of California voters dubbed an enduring lack of water a major problem, with 62 percent of Field Poll respondents calling the state of affairs “extremely serious.” But that still marked a sharp decline from October of 2015, when 76 percent of Californian voters called the drought extremely serious.

“Obviously the high point of public concern was back in October, prior to the current rainy season, because, hey, it hadn’t rained yet,” Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo said.

Last year, signs pointed to a drought of historic severity.