Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. VALADAO. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from California for offering this very important amendment.

When you look at what is going on in Central Valley, my hometown, and you hear stories--and I see for myself because I was there this past week--cities, houses, running out of water, wells going dry. There was a news article a couple of days ago about a city in my district named Lemoore where wells are going dry that supply homes there the south side of town. That is a frustrating situation.

We fought for the last couple of years to bring legislation to the floor. We delivered it to the Senate a few times to help resolve this.

What makes this more frustrating than anything is we have got a situation here where we could actually make a difference. There are studies here that prove that 95 percent of the fish that we are trying to protect are being eaten by species that we are doing nothing about. The tools are there.

This is a simple amendment that actually helps deliver and force these agencies which should be looking out for the best interests of the people of the United States, it forces them to actually use every single tool in their toolbox to actually address the situation instead of wasting water.

When I saw the story not too long ago about water being diverted or released in these pulse flows to trick some of our species to try to protect instead of actually doing something to make a difference, it is a waste of water that could have made a real difference for the people in my district, people who are unemployed. We are starting to see unemployment numbers again upwards of 50 percent in some of these communities, houses where they are actually delivering water by truck so they can bathe. This is a real dire situation.

This amendment is a step in the right direction that actually allows these government agencies which, again, are supposed to take the interests of the American people at heart first to use all the tools in their toolbox.

This is a good idea, this is a good amendment, and this really truly makes a difference.

Again, thank you for this amendment, and I urge support.

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