Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2954, Public Access and Land Improvement Act, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3964, Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, the opposition has erupted into a veritable Mount Vesuvius of misinformation on the California water bill, and I would like to address a couple of the major points that they have raised.

This does not preempt State water rights. It specifically invokes and protects the water rights against infringement by any bureaucracy--local, State, or Federal. This is a legitimate constitutional function of the Federal Government that dates back to the 14th Amendment, and it is made essential by the unique relationship between the Federal and State governments with respect to California water policy, the mixture of both the Central Valley project and the State water project.

To the ridiculous comment that this is a theft of northern California water and that northern California is united in its opposition, nothing could be further from the truth. On the contrary, this bill protects the north from any attempt to override established California water rights law in reallocating water from the north.

Just to illustrate this, I would point out that it was these provisions in the last session of Congress that the California Association of Water Agencies specifically pointed to in support. They said this: The bill, if enacted, now contains provisions that would not only protect the interests of senior water rights holders in the Sacramento Valley but would also provide significant material water policy improvements to current Federal law. The bill, if enacted, would provide an unprecedented Federal statutory express recognition of and commitment to California's State water rights priority system and area of origin protections.

Finally, to the argument that we cannot make it rain, there is not enough water to go around. Well, that is true. One of the reasons is because in this third year of drought, we have dumped a total of 1.6 million acre-feet of water into the Pacific Ocean that was desperately needed to support the threatened human population of California.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source