Western Water and American Food Security Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, here we go again, debating solutions to California's water woes, with each side making similar arguments we have heard for years.

In fact, more than a decade ago, I was standing in this very spot, in the middle of the debate of the last significant Western water law that Congress has passed. We passed the CALFED law in 2004 and hoped that it would help California establish reliable and affordable water supplies that would help us get through dry spells like we are currently experiencing.

So why are we back here again debating many of the same issues? The simplest answer to that question is we allowed the ``don't build anything'' faction in California to block the critical investments we need to make in our State's water infrastructure.

The CALFED law authorized feasibility studies for large water storage projects like Temperance Flat, Sites Reservoir, Upper San Joaquin, expanding Los Vaqueros Reservoir and raising Shasta Dam. A decade later, our State's population has grown by 3 million new residents, and those projects are still being studied. Think about that for a second. California's population has grown the same amount as the population of the entire State of Iowa, and we haven't made a significant investment in our water infrastructure to accommodate those residents.

It is well past time to stop talking about these projects and start building them. Thankfully, the bill before us will move us in that direction by requiring our resource agencies to finally complete those decade-long feasibility studies.

Of course, building water storage doesn't help us in the short term, and it also requires excess water that can be diverted. That is why the Western Water and American Food Security Act injects commonsense and science in the operation of our water infrastructure.

When it does rain again, we simply can't afford to make the same mistakes we have made in the past and allow millions of gallons to flow out to the Pacific Ocean. Those wasted flows don't benefit the environment, farmers, or California residents, and they must be directed to a higher, better use.

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Mr. Chairman, we have a clear choice before us today. We can continue to listen to those who oppose investing in California's water infrastructure and we can believe we can restrict our way out of this problem, or we can recognize that California's situation today is far worse than it should be precisely because of our failure to build adequate water storage and restore more science and commonsense into our water policies that are operating today.

I encourage all my colleagues to support the Western Water and American Food Security Act so that we can avoid being back here on the House floor during California's next drought having these very same arguments.

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Mr. Chairman, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, in H.R. 2898, we establish an oversight board for the Central Valley Project Restoration Fund.

What my amendment does is simple. It adds an additional conservation seat to the 11-member board, which will provide parity between the environmental and user group interests.

The advisory board reflects the interests of agriculture, municipal and industrial users, power contractors, wildlife refuges, in addition to the economic impacts of water operations, so that the Secretary of the Interior will receive recommendations that encompass a broad perspective.

The reason for my amendment is also simple, to ensure that a more balanced and effective approach is being taken as the Secretary of the Interior prioritizes spending levels on projects and programs carried out through the restoration fund.

Again, in closing, my amendment strikes a better balance between conservation and user groups interests on the 11-member board and will help to ensure that the annual surcharges water and power users contribute will be spent on the most effective methods in habitat restoration and environmental mitigation.

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I thank my colleagues for supporting this amendment. It is a simple amendment. This is a process, as my friend from California has mentioned. After we move this bill forward today, we will have the opportunity, hopefully, to conference with the Senate. Hopefully, they can pass a bill in the Senate, and we can do something good for the State of California.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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