Western Water and American Food Security Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mrs. LUMMIS. Mr. Chairman, the American West is in the midst of a severe drought, especially central California. This problem demands swift action, with tens of thousands of trees, plants, jobs, food, and livelihoods at stake.

H.R. 2898 will help bring our Western water supply infrastructure into the 21st century, making it more drought resistant. The bill also addresses the manmade Federal decisions that are exacerbating the drought.

H.R. 2898 ensures scientific transparency in Federal actions that are literally taking water away from people that desperately need it, all for questionable benefit of endangered fish.

The bill also requires the deployment of more effective management tools like addressing the nonnative fish that are harming the endangered fish.

West-wide, the bill takes steps to build new water storage that is crucial to the well-being of Western communities and economies. To assist non-Federal projects, the bill creates a one-stop shop for water storage permitting at the Bureau of Reclamation.

Oftentimes, Federal agencies overlap or conflict with each other when it comes to permitting non-Federal facilities. This provision forces them to sit down with one lead agency, the Bureau of Reclamation, to resolve issues and expedite permitting.

For Federal projects, the bill creates a streamlined and transparent process for the Bureau that mirrors the Army Corps' provisions in the Water Resource Reform and Development Act of 2014, which was enacted by overwhelming bipartisan majorities in both Houses of Congress.

To offset the bill's implementation costs and finance new water storage, the bill allows irrigation districts and water utilities to prepay their share of the capital costs of Federal water projects.

Mr. Chairman, some water users are prohibited from paying off contracts early. This is nonsensical. Congress has lifted the restrictions in piecemeal fashion before, and it is time to dispense with it altogether.

One way to efficiently construct new storage is to allow the Bureau of Reclamation to make water storage improvements during the course of making safety improvements. H.R. 2898 allows the Bureau to do just that.

Finally, the bill prohibits the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture from holding public land permits hostage unless permittees give up their State-endowed water rights. This will put a stop to the Federal Government's repeated attempts to grab water rights at the expense of State authority from the Forest Service's interim directive for ski area permits to the Service's ill-fated groundwater directive.

Mr. Chairman, this bill takes a commonsense approach to solving water problems in the West, and I urge its adoption.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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