California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition of H.R. 5781,
yet another California water-grab bill. If enacted, H.R. 5781 would
dictate specific actions for water management agencies' experts to take
while undermining state water rights and state environmental laws.
These directives would eliminate flexibility in the system by making it
more difficult for state and federal agencies to make real-time,
science-based decisions to address the drought.

In addition to my colleagues speaking out against the bill today, the
Administration issued a Statement of Administration Policy on the bill
which states:

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Instead of legislating how the current dwindling supply of water
should be moved within the state, we should follow the Administration's
lead and fund conservation, recycling, and storage projects to create
new water.

Additionally, over 30 environmental, natural resource, and fishing
groups sent letters of opposition to H.R. 5781 to Congress.

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Authors of H.R. 5781 believe it will boost the economy in part of
California, but in this haphazard attempt at amelioration, they risk
eliminating jobs in the $1.4 billion salmon industry by, jobs in the
Delta tourism industry, and jobs in Northern California agriculture.

Natural resource and bird organizations oppose the bill because of
the devastating impact it could have on migratory birds and other fish
and wildlife in the Bay-Delta estuary.

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With at least a billion birds migrating along the Pacific Flyway each
year, we cannot afford to eliminate even more habitat. We must ensure
water supplies are properly balanced for all needs and mandating
exports to water users south of the Delta will not achieve this
balance.

In addition to being deeply flawed, this bill is being rammed through
at the last minute. Introduced just last week, this bill is
circumventing all regular order and will be voted on despite having no
hearings and no mark-ups. As the Sacramento Bee states, ``The new bill
deserves a full public hearing so that we know its full implications
for California.''

As I have stated before, this drought is caused by nature--something
so painfully obvious, it can be seen from space. Circumventing science
and legislating how to operate a water system is irresponsible and we
must find ways to add to our water supply instead of taking water from
one group and giving to another for political gain. For these reasons,
I urge my colleagues to oppose this bill.

Mr. THOMPSON of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition
to H.R. 5781, a bill that was written in secret, would destroy jobs,
ignores established science, and does nothing to address the drought.

Unfortunately, I am unable to participate in this debate today due to
the House Majority's last minute scheduling. Not only were we not given
time for Congressional hearings or public input on this legislation, we
were not even given enough time to plan to be here to debate the bill after it was
rushed to the floor. I was home working in district when this debate
was scheduled and by the time I received notice of the floor debate, no
flights were available other than the one I was originally on.

Ten months ago this House considered and passed a similarly horrible
bill. Neither bill will solve the drought because neither bill can make
it rain.

Instead of spending the last ten months working across the aisle with
all stakeholders at the table to come up with legislation that actually
addresses the statewide drought, the Majority has negotiated this bill
in secret with only a select group of farming interests in the Central
Valley.

Everyone in California is affected by the ongoing statewide drought
and Congress should not be picking winners and losers. Unfortunately,
this bill does just that.

H.R. 5781 is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt to use the
drought as an excuse to steal water from the Bay Delta--and to do so
with zero regard for the folks who depend on that water for their
livelihoods.

The Delta supports thousands of jobs in farming, fishing and tourism,
and has an economic output of more than $4 billion a year.

Millions also rely on the Delta for drinking water. When clean water
is pumped south, the level of salt water in the Delta increases. Folks
can't drink seawater.

The entire state of California is in a drought. It's not due to a
lack of pumping. It's due to a lack of snow and rain.

If the Majority was interested in actually addressing the drought,
there are things we could do to help. Congress can invest in more water
conservation, more water recycling, and more water storage.

With investments like these, we can collect millions of gallons of
new water, help farmers better plan, and create good jobs.

This bill does none of that. Our people deserve better than this
politically driven bill. They deserve solutions.
Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``no'' vote on H.R. 5781

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