California Emergency Drought Relief Act of 2014

Floor Speech

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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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