Water is Life

Floor Speech

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Mr. VASQUEZ. Mr. Speaker, in New Mexico, water is life, and it is our economy.

In 1902, the Federal Government recognized this harsh reality, passing the Reclamation Act to make arid Western lands agriculturally productive.

In that negotiation, they gave States like New Mexico the right to allocate and adjudicate its own water resources. Today, those rights are being violated. Don't ask me. Ask Luna County farmers and ranchers who are currently seeing droves of unauthorized wells being drilled by the Federal Government right by their pastures, stealing their water. It has to stop.

For generations, ranching families in this border community have relied on water from the Mimbres and Hachita Basin to sustain their herds and their way of life. When the feds needed water, they bought it or they trucked in. Recently they said: Why buy it when we can steal it?

Our ranchers follow the State's water laws. DHS doesn't, and it appears they don't care either. DHS contractors today are drilling deep new wells in Luna County for border wall construction, depleting this vital water source with no regard for permitting, State law, or the impact to border ranchers.

Mr. Speaker, we all support border security, but we don't support unauthorized well drilling that's draining precious resources. I stand with our ranchers.

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