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Did Mark Kelly claim Arizona's drought is not an existential crisis?

By Ngan Nguyen
YES

In an Aug. 21, 2022 interview on CNN’s State of the Union, Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly from Arizona said severe drought in Arizona is "not existential" in response to interviewer Jake Tapper calling it “an existential crisis.” Kelly said there are solutions to water issues in the West, citing provisions to deal with drought in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and Inflation Reduction Act. He also said there is currently a lack of partnership between states in the Colorado River Basin, which is hindering progress.

The U.S. Senate recently passed the bipartisan Water Resources Development Act of 2022 that Kelly says will allot Arizona funding for infrastructure and flood control. Kelly “shaped” this legislation in his position on the Senate Environment and Public Works committee.

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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.
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