Providing for the Operations of the Federal Columbia River Power System

Floor Speech

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Mr. HUFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Arizona for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, today we are being asked to pass yet another bill that undermines the Endangered Species Act and accelerates the extinction of our Nation's fish and wildlife.

Specifically, H.R. 3144, the Salmon Extinction Act, undermines protections for several runs of wild salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest.

The Northwest's iconic salmon runs are extremely important to commercial, recreational, and Tribal fishing interests across the country.

My Republican colleagues are pushing this bill even though the region's salmon runs are currently at crisis levels.

Recently, we have even seen reporting that, for the first time, Federal scientists who were surveying Northwest salmon populations came up with empty nets.

And yet, here we are today, advancing a bill that will do nothing but accelerate our Nation's existing salmon declines.

The bill also represents a troubling attack on the legal process. If enacted, it would overturn legally sound court decisions simply because the bill's sponsors don't like them.

Instead of following the law, this bill forcibly mandates the use of an outdated illegal salmon recovery plan for the Federal Columbia River Power System.

The recovery plan in question has clearly been found by the courts to violate the law and the Endangered Species Act. It is illegal, and Congress, through this bill, would be saying: Do it anyway.

I should note that this bill also undermines one of our Nation's other bedrock environmental laws, the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, by barring a host of actions that could potentially recover this region's salmon runs, which are currently, again, on the brink of extinction.

The sponsor of this bill and I do agree on one thing, however. When talking about this bill, Representative McMorris Rodgers recently said that dams and fish can coexist, and I too think that is possible.

The debate here is not about dams versus no dams. The debate is about striking the appropriate balance between responsible hydropower development and sound fisheries protection.

For too long, there has been an imbalance when we consider these issues. Our country built thousands of dams in the 20th century before we even realized the harm that can be caused to our Nation's fisheries.

So today, we are left with many legacy, low-value dams that don't justify their cost and their impacts to our Nation's fishery and natural resources.

So as we consider what to do about these older, low-value dams, our decision making must be guided by the best available science and a consideration of all available options, not what politicians in Congress want.

Unfortunately, this bill takes us in the wrong direction by blocking responsive science-based fisheries management. It would actually lock in a disastrous status quo until at least the year 2022; a status quo that is expensive, illegal, and inadequate; an approach that causes great harm to wild salmon, struggling fishing communities, Tribes, and energy consumers. The status quo is not working.

This bill says: Keep doing it anyway.

It is time for Federal agencies to pursue new, innovative solutions that are better for both fisheries and hydropower generation. This bill pushes a one-sided divisive approach that will only cause further harm.

That is why it is opposed by the Governors of both Washington and Oregon, by Tribal interests, by hundreds of businesses that depend on healthy salmon runs, and also by numerous conservation organizations.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``no.''

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