Providing for Consideration of H.R. 2898, Western Water and American Food Security Act of 2015, and Providing for Consideration of H.R. 3038, Highway and Transportation Funding Act of 2015, Part II

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, a little bit on the history of the Valley and the area that I represent. It is an area filled with immigrants.

When you look at my district and when you look at the people I represent, 80 percent of them are minorities. One of the reasons I feel that I had the opportunity to be elected and the honor of being able to represent that district is due to my own background.

My dad came to this country in 1969 as a new immigrant. He didn't speak English as well as he should have, and still, to this day, he speaks with a very strong accent, as does my mom.

When my dad started working in plants and trying to save money so that he could start his own farm someday and give us the opportunity to have the American Dream, he learned to speak Spanish while working alongside a lot of Hispanic folks.

While working really hard and saving his money, he had the opportunity to save enough money to actually buy some cattle and work his way up to the point at which he actually owned some land.

When we look at an opportunity for the American Dream, when we listen to people talk about the opportunity to be successful and protect the small business guy, I am that guy.

I am the guy who had that opportunity because of my parents, because of their hard work. I have been in that struggle. I don't just represent them in Congress, I am that face. I am that person who had that opportunity because of that hard work.

When we see the struggle and when someone claims to tell me or to tell us on our side what those struggles are really like and how this piece of legislation has an impact only for the largest of the large, when you raise the cost of water because you restrict the amount of water that we have delivered to the Valley, it hurts the smallest guy the most.

Those people I represent, that 80 percent minority district, are seeing unemployment numbers as high as 50 percent because those farmers are not getting that water. Those food lines are starting to grow, lines that I stood in, where I helped serve food. It is food that was grown in other countries because we can no longer grow it in the Valley.

These are all people that my friends across the aisle claim to represent, but they don't, because they don't have that background and they didn't have that opportunity to be there to work with them and to grow up in that life where they had to work before and after school like I did--drive a tractor, feed calves, and do all that different type of stuff--because that is what the American Dream is all about: working, saving your money, and having that opportunity.

It is also about having government at their backs. But, right now government is making it more and more difficult for that little guy. Water has gotten so expensive because you have the large cities coming in and spending a bunch of money so that water is going right through the Valley to the southern portion.

All we are asking for in this piece of legislation is for some common sense, common sense that says: ``Let's look at what science we are using.'' If we are going to protect a species, show me the evidence that meets and actually delivers the protection of species.

We have lived through two decades of this, and now we are seeing that the endangered species they claim to want to protect is on the verge of annihilation, almost gone, extinct, after delivering almost no water.

We have gotten an allocation over these past few years of zero percent. We are not asking for a lot of water. We are not asking to be taught how to conserve water. We have done that. We have reached that point.

We are at zero. We have got zero water, and we have got high unemployment numbers. We have got people standing in line, asking for food and begging for help, when all they want to do is work an honest living and provide for their families and for their neighbors.

We have seen too much suffering. It is getting old. We need to pass legislation. We need people who are sincere in this conversation to show up and show some courage and vote for this legislation.

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