Mr. Thompson if that freshwater doesnt run through and to the ocean the saltwater runs back in. I have two major cities in my district that relies on that for the source of water. If this bill passes, their water supply is in jeopardy. You cant drink salts water. It just doesnt work. California is in the middle of an extreme drought. Its not due to a lack of pumping. Its not because our states water regulations and its not because were putting fish ahead of farms and people. Its because theres no rain and theres no snow. No bill can make it rain but this bill makes a bad situation even worse. Its wrong for california. It wont stop the drought. It wont make it rain but it will kill jobs and it will ruin Drinking Water for millions of californians. The state of california wont support this bill because it ignores 20 years of established science and undermines our extensive efforts to implement equal measures to address longstanding water shortages. Weve been down this road before in california. We ignored science and we diverted water out of the clamoth river and nearly 80,000 spawning salmon died. Livelihoods were lost. This bill also sets a dangerous precedent for every other state in our california. California has long state in our country. California has longstanding rules and this bill overrides regulations that californians themselves devised to govern our states Water Supplies. It tells local Resource Managers in Water Districts how to administrator their water supply. If we pass this bill, were telling every state in america that were ok with the federal government undermining local experts and state laws from coast to coast. If that werent enough this bill also undercuts longstanding environmental laws. The legislation were debating today redefines the standard by which the endangered species act is applied. This will weaken the law, increase the risk of species extinction and lead to countless lauts and costly litigations. Its as if the majority is Holding Wildlife responsible for our lack of rain. Youll hear on the other side talk about a little fish, the delta smelt and how were protecting fish at the expense of people. The truth is as the gentleman from california mentioned, the protection of the smelt hasnt preventing one drop of water from being pumped south since 2013. We havent pumped more water south because there simply isnt enough water. Were in a drought. And im not insensitive to the supply and demand reality of californias water. I understand the concerns of the Central Valley farmers. Im a farmer myself, but if my well runs dry the solution isnt to steal the water from my neighbors. We need Real Solutions that are based on science and that work for everyone. This bill is not that solution. Its bad for california. Its bad for the states. Its bad for our environment. I yield back the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman from california reserves. The gentlewoman from wyoming is recognized. Mrs. Lummis thank you, mr. Chairman. Facts are stubborn things. According to the bureau of reclamation, biological reduce Central Valleys exports by 6 acrefeet in 2014. Already this year according to the bureau of reclamation, species have reduced Valley Project waters to farmers by 280000 acrefeet. Again, my source is the bureau of reclamation. At this time, mr. Chairman, i yield two minutes to the chairman of the house Natural Resources committee, mr. Bishop of utah. The chair the gentleman from utah is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Bishop thank you, mr. Chairman. You know, the other day, one said, today is going to be a glorious day. He obviously was talking about the sunshine outside, which means we should have done this bill yesterday so i could be on my deck right now but thats beside the point. This is, though, a glorious day because we are finally doing a solution that helps people. Instead of just kicking the can down the road again for another year, we are going to find a solution to this problem. This problem of a drought that is affecting the entire west to such a degree that one would think that nost are a dam us claims have come nostradamu ss claims have come trufmente many opponents of the bill would say hey lets pass more rain dances and hope something happens. What were doing here is taking the advice of our pioneering forefathers and say what we have save, do it not just for california but the entire west. That is the purpose behind this particular bill. There are some concerns about Environmental Issues that may or may not have been wise to do in the past. That is not the concern of this bill. Were not stopping any of that. What we are doing is finding a creative way to provide for that but also provide a way of getting water to people where they need it. You know in the middle of the last century we did Water Projects and hydropower projects that helped us win the war. Now is the time to do Water Projects and hydropower projects to help us feed people in this nation and in the entire world and help out areas that have up to 50 unemployment. I have been down there and i have seen those particular communities. Many of them first and Second Generation americans. Minorities who only want to provide a decent living for themselves and for their families and to work. And what we need to do is actually solve this problem so we can put people to work to provide food for this country and to provide jobs for people and to help people. Thats what this bill is about, finally, helping people with creative solutions. If the romans could build an aqueduct system to move water, we can build a system to move water that actually helps people. This is about people. Pass this bill. Lets move it on. Lets solve the problem. I yield back. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. The gentlewoman from wyoming reserves. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Huffman thank you, mr. Chairman. I am pleased to yield 2 1 2 minutes to my colleague from los angeles, a city that frankly is pioneers some of the most promising Water Management strategies we have in california, strategies that are reflected in our Democratic Alternative bill for which im grateful that mr. Cardenas is a cosponsor. They are stretching imported water wisely, but using recycled water treating stormwater, working on the cutting edge. They deserve federal support, support that our colleagues across the aisle has failed to give for too many years. 2 1 2 minutes. The chair the gentleman from california is recognized for 2 1 2 minutes. Mr. Cardenas thank you for your wonderful work always on these issues. Ladies and gentlemen, what we have here is a failure to communicate, a failure to communicate our priorities but more importantly as legislators a failure to work on compromise. Californias currently facing an historic drought. We can no longer take water for granted. Every single californian has been forced to examined how much we truly depend on clean and reliable water in our everyday lives. City residence and businesses around the state are cutting back but its not enough. Unless the western United States experiences significant rainfall in the near future we will see ghost towns and extreme hardship for the most atrisk populations of our state. While much of the coverage in the media has been on brown lawns across the state and the rationing thats going on, the real impact threatens the lives of hardworking families throughout our state. Take a trip through californias Central Valley, there you will see the gravity of the situation. Youll see Unemployment Rates double our triple the national average, forcing families into makeshift dwellings that remind us of the hoffervilles during the durst bowl. These people arent thinking of their brown lawns. Theyre thinking of the fact they have lost their home. These families want their jobs back. They want to go to work so they can feed their children. This bill and the various Democratic Alternatives are works in progress. We have to fund find a solution, but this bill is not it. If we are serious about facing the challenges our constituents sent us here to solve im ready and willing to work with you and with you to make the necessary tough decisions and compromises. I look forward to working with mr. Costa whose district is experiencing the most significant impacts and senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to craft a stronger bipartisan bicameral solution. We have no choice but to find better ways to capture and transport water in all parts of the state to meet the needs of the people and our economy while protecting the environment and delicate species. We must not use this time of need as a way to pick partisan fights. We have to find legislation that protects our environment while we also protect california families. Lives are at stake. Ladies and gentlemen, we need to come together and Work Together. I yield back. The chair the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from california reserves. The gentlewoman from wyoming. Mrs. Lummis mr. Chairman, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from california, mr. Calvert, chairman of the subcommittee on interior and environment of the House Appropriations committee. Mr. Calvert i thank the gentlelady for yielding. The chair the gentleman from california is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Calvert mr. Chairman, here we go again debating solutions to californias water woes with each side making similar arguments weve heard for years. In fact, more than a decade ago i was standing in this very stop in the middle of the debate of the last significant Western Water law that congress passed. We passed calfed, a law in 2004 and hoped it would help california establish relyable, affordable Water Supplies that would reliable affordable Water Supplies that would help us get us through dry spells which were experiencing again. Why are we here again debating similar issues . The simple answer is we allowed the dont build anything faction in california blocked the critical investments we need to make in our states Water Infrastructure. The calfed law offered feasibility studies for large water facilities upper san joaquin, expanding others and raising the shasta dam. A decade later our states population has grown by three million new residents and knows projects are still being studied and those projects are still being studied. Think about that, californias population has grown the same amount as the population of the entire state of iowa, and we havent made the significant investments in our Water Infrastructure to accommodate those residents. Its 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 decadelong feasibility studies. Of course, building water storage doesnt help us in the short term and it also requires excess water that can be diverted. Thats why the Western Water and American Food security act injects common sense and science in our Water Infrastructure. When it does rain again, we simply cant afford to make the same mistakes weve made in the past and allow millions of gallons to flow out to the Pacific Ocean. Those wasted flows dont benefit the environment. Farmers or california residents, and they must be directed to a higher, better use. Mr. Speaker mr. Chairman, we have a clear choice before us today. Can have i 30 additional seconds . Mrs. Lummis i yield 30 additional seconds. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Calvert we can continue to listen to those who oppose investing in californias Water Infrastructure and we can believe we can restrict our way out of this problem or we can recognize that californias situation today is far worse than it should be precisely because our failure to build adequate water storage and restore more science and common sense into water policies that are operating today. I encourage all my colleagues to support the Western Water and American Food security act. We can avoid being back here on the house floor during californias next drought having these very same arguments. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. The gentlewoman from wyoming reserves. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Huffman mr. Chairman, how much time do we have left . The chair the gentleman from california has three minutes left. Mr. Huffman i yield two minutes to the distinguished gentleman from the sacramento valley, mr. Garamendi. The chair the gentleman from california is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Garamendi i thank you, mr. Speaker and my colleagues. Weve been here before. Ive listened to my colleagues who are the proponents of this bill over the last five years, and as the previous speaker said, weve gone this path before. There really is a solution. Unfortunately, i guess, all of us in one way or another hang to our past rhetoric and ignore the opportunity that really demands our attention now to develop a comprehensive god policy for california. There good policy for california. This bill is an improvement over the past bills theres no doubt about it. The issue moving forward with the projects that are necessary. Thats all good. Dams other kinds of programs aquifer restoration, good deal. However, in is in this bill things that are very, very troublesome. You cannot mandate by law the operations of the Water Systems in california or anywhere else. You cannot you cannot specify how they will be operating because you do not know on a daytoday or yeartoyear or monthtomonth basis what actually will be on the ground. So that portion of the bill that sets out those operating procedures should be removed. Goals yes. Operating procedures, no. It just wont work. And as said by both the federal and state governments, if you were to move this bill forward into law, you would create chaos in california. Every paragraph, every comma, every word in California Water law, both in law and in court decisions, sets the precedent. But unfortunately this bill overrides that. Were very close to it. We can put this together. My colleague, mr. Huffman, has a proposal thats comprehensive and it ought to be integrated into our programs. It ought to be i want grated into this bill. But the kind of compromise and discussion that is necessary to develop a law that actually works has not been undertaken. So i urge my colleagues, the proponents of this bill, to slow it down. Let the state and federal government continue to do what theyre doing, and that is to operate this system to the maximum potential despite the fact that theres very, very little water. Mr. Huffman i yield the gentleman 15 seconds. Mr. Garen men dee we can do this but we have to Work Together. Unfortunately that has not occur. I urge my colleague, the proponents of this bill, to take the time to meet with those of white house will be the losers if this bill moves forward. We can all be winners. I draw your attention to mr. Huffmans legislation which is comprehensive, which will work and which could be i want grated into this legislation. In the meantime, i continue to oppose it. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. The gentleman from california reserves. The gentlewoman from wyoming. Mrs. Lummis respectfully, when i was in california in the Central Valley i saw chaos. Its already happening. And the people are desperate for a solution. With that mr. Chairman, i yield one minute to the gentleman from california, mr. Nunes. The chair the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Nunes i have a statement i would like to submit for the record. The chair without objection, so ordered. Mr. Nunes for seven, eight years, continually, the republicans have offered solutions and continually nearly all the democrats have voted no. So this isnt about sloughs because the real solution that the left wants is to idle over a million acres of farm ground in the San Joaquin Valley. And this is why the forefathers of our state built a system that would withstand a drought of five years. Now look, we need additional storage, but everyone in this body, anyone who knows anything about water knows that if you dont fix the plumbing in the delta, if you dont deal with the San Joaquin River settlement, and if you dont build a few new storage projects, other a million acres of farm grounds will go idle. Those are the facts. And conveniently, most of my friends who are up here speaking on the left live in the coastal areas and get their water, they steal their water from our area to give themselves pristine Drinking Water. Thats what they do. And so now were dealing with, were going to be left with the chaos thats developed of over a million acres of farm ground coming out of production unless the senate can take and act on this legislation quickly. I yelled back the balance of my time. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. The gentlewoman reserves. The gentleman from california. Mr. Huffman i reserve. The chair the gentlewoman from wyoming. Mrs. Lummis i yield two minutes to the gentleman from california, mr. Denham. The chair the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Denham thank you for yielding on this important issue. Some will say theyre not voting for this bill buzz of the challenges they perceive that are in it. The biggest problem with this bill is that it doesnt do enough. We need millions of new acre