Providing for Congressional Disapproval of the Rule Submitted By the United States Fish and Wildlife Service Relating to ``Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Endangered Species Status for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Distinct Population Segment of the Longfin Smelt''

Floor Speech

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Mr. DeSAULNIER. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Huffman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, welcome to California water wars. A famous quote attributed to Mark Twain is:

In California, whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting.

Welcome to the debate. This is much more than just the delta smelt. It is interesting to see my two colleagues and friends from parallel universes--I am from a southern parallel universe--debate this because, sometime ago when Mr. LaMalfa and I were in the California Legislature, we thought we had put a lot of this past us when we negotiated in good faith the building of those two reservoirs.

Part of it was to finally require the ag industry to get permits because they were depleting the aquifer so much that the water contractors were complaining. They were water contractors who historically have made a lot of money without providing much value.

I say that in the context of this is an important discussion for the environment appropriately for this committee, the chairman and the ranking member, but it is a bigger issue.

It is an issue about fairness, about subsidies. Yes, the agriculture industry is important, as the chairman pointed out, in California, but we have given them a lot of support over the decades, including subsidies from the Federal Government. When we are looking at fiscal management, we should look at this resource in a larger sense, in my view, as somebody who has represented the delta for decades.

The San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary, which I am proud to represent a significant part of, provides economic benefits to the entire State of California and, as the chairman said, to larger areas of the West Coast and the country in many ways. It provides clean water, recreation, and all of these benefits to a very large area.

The longfin smelt, one of the several native fish populations within the delta, is an important indicator species for the health of this vital body of water and our economy. It serves as kind of a red herring to help alert to habitat degradation across the delta from poor water quality or diversion of too much water.

Unfortunately, the species population, as the ranking member has pointed out, has declined more than 99 percent from 1980s levels, putting us at risk of losing an important way we analyze the delta in a drought-prone region.

The San Francisco Bay-Delta population of the longfin smelt was listed as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act after thorough scientific review, as has been mentioned, and a public comment process. This Congressional Review Act resolution casts aside the data for no apparent reason. Decisions on whether to list a species as endangered should be based on science as Congress intended under the Endangered Species Act, not on politics.

While I agree with my good friend from California that ensuring reliable water supply and storage is essential to northern California, for both of my friends from northern California, disregarding experts is the wrong way to go about the analysis, obviously.

This debate on the whole water supply and storage, as articulated by the ranking member, is essential to the West Coast. Disregarding these experts and scientists and the proper process for endangered species listing is not the way to do it. Protecting endangered species and providing a stable water supply are not mutually exclusive. They can be done in a way where both delta communities and delta species, and, indeed, the entire West Coast and the country, prosper from protecting this endangered species.

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