Transcripts For CSPAN US House Of Representatives Special Or

CSPAN US House Of Representatives Special Orders May 24, 2016

Gutting the environmental protections of the delta. This is another water war in california we do not need. What we need is some wise legislation that actually can solve the problem. Gutting the endangered species act, overriding the biological opinions, taking away the clean water act and simply turning the pumps on is not a solution. It is in fact the death nell of the delta. Knell of the delta. Along with governor browns tunnels, it will end the delta. Lets go the wife science with realtime monitoring of what is happening in the depellta is how we determine whether to ramp up or reduce the pumping in the delta. That is not in the bill. Take a look at the opponents. Weve got the two delta interests, mr. Mcnerney and myself, weve got the san juan queen valleys. This is not the way to hannle it. Not in an appropriation. Not in a bill that guts the environmental protections and simply turns the pumps on. I yield back. The chair the gentleman has yielded. How much time do i have left . The chair 30 seconds. We hear about water going out to the ocean but its pushing water away from the delta. Mr. Mcnerney i dont accept the word waste. I inform my colleagues from southern california, lets implore my colleagues from southern california, lets Work Together. We can recycle, we can store rain water, we can become more efficient and find wastage and stop evaporation. Theres plenty of things to produce new water. These provisions in this bill roduce no new water. Mr. Speaker, i yield back. The chair for what purpose does the gentleman from california rise . How much time do i have remaining. The chair the gentleman has 2 1 2 minutes. I yield a minute and a half to the gentleman from california, mr. Calvert. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Calvert water wars. Ive been at this for a while too, as my friend from Northern California has. People are suffering right now for no good reason. According to independent studies, under the existing biological opinions, over a million acrefeet of water has been wasted because of nonpumping. What i mean by wasted is not one fish, not one smelt, not one salmon would have been lost in the delta because of pumping. But because of overcautiousness on the part of the department of superior and fish and wildlife weve let that water go. Tell that to the people that live in that shantytown. Tell that to the people who actually import produce from china to live on. And i know that people like to paint us as the party that doesnt care about the hispanic community. Tell that to the hundreds of thousands of people that have been put out of work in the Central Valley. This is wrong. I congratulate mr. Valadao for the hard work and passion hes put into this because he cares about the people he represents. And we should care about them too. Theres no good reason why weve let this happen. Weve allowed this to happen for, you know a number of reasons. Most of which doesnt make any sense to most people who understand this stuff. And we have a chance, i think, to fix this. Pass mr. Valadaos legislation and lets move on. The chair the gentlemans time has expired. For what purpose does the gentlewoman from ohio seek recognition . Ms. Kaptur i would like to claim time in opposition. The chair is the gentlelady striking the last weird. Ms. Catch tur i claim time in support. The chair does the gentlelady move to strike the last word . Ms. Kaptur move to strike the last word. The chair the gentlewoman is recognized. Ms. Kaptur i yield to the gentlelady from california, mr. Mcnerney. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Mcnerney i thank the gentlelady from ohio. We talk about water being wasted but the delta is becoming more salty every year. Weve been exporting 70 of the water that comes, the fresh watter that comes to the delta, the salt water has been intruded. We need the fresh water to push out that salt water, we need to give the fishermen that live up and down the coast, we talk about and i feel for the farmers in the south part of the valley, its devastate, its horrible, but we also see the same thing happening with fishermen in the north coast. So basically, were doing the same thing thats been historically, were going to take watter from one part of the state, give it to another, were going to make benefits in one part, hurt another. Thats not the way to do business. We can find comprehensive solutions that include infrom structure investments, recycling, water smart projects, theres ways to create new water. We dont have to keep grabbing water from one another to grow fruits and vegetables or to have fish fishermen survive on the north coast. With that, im going to yield 2 1 2 minutes to my colleague, john delaware men dee. The chair the gentlelady controls the time. Ms. Kaptur im pleased to yield to the fine gentleman from california, mr. Fware men tee. The chair the gentleman is recognized from california. Mr. Garamendi all of us get pretty excited about water in california. I see my colleagues in the San Joaquin Valley and beyond lined up to protest whats happened over this last year but theres no doubt that this last year in the rainy season didnt work for anybody. We cant find a solution. If we base that solution we can find a solution. If we base that solution on solid science, on realtime monitoring of where the fish are, and i know theres a monitoring provision in this bill. But this particular bill as written would push aside the environmental protections and simply allow the pumps to be turned on even with the Monitoring System of what we need to do is base the delta operation on realtime monitoring of where the species are and then adjust the pumps accordingly. There is a solution, my colleague, mr. Mcnerney, just talked in detail about the necessity of building additional infrastructure for water. We need sites reservoir in the northern part of the state. San luis rebuild the reservoir. We need to rebuild the infrastructure, recycling, all the other things. But we do not need, as this bill does, to take the endangered species act, the clean water act and the biological opinions and push them out of the way and just allow the pumps to turn on. That is not a solution. Thats a solution for the destruction of the largest estuary on the west coast of the western hemisphere. I dont doubt for a moment the sincerity of my colleagues from the San Joaquin Valley and southern california. They are sincere about the concern and we share that concern. 300,000 acres of my rice farmers didnt get planted this year because of the drought. We also know the dg that a drought can do. But there is a way of solving this problem. This is not the bill. This bill will set off a war, obviously were already at it here on the floor of the house. Lets put this aside. Lets sit down as we can do and develop a solution that keeps in place the environmental laws and allows the flexibility that is present within those laws to be used to the maximum extent and not push the laws and biological opinions out of the way to the detriment of the largest estuary on the west coast of the western hemisphere. Critical for salmon, other species in the ocean, as well as for the agriculture in the delta and the four or five Million People that depend upon that water from the delta. So with that, i yield back. I ask my colleagues to work with all of us and ill take you up on your offer, mr. Chairman of the subcommittee, ill take you up on your offer and sit down with you and well work this out but not in this way, at this moment, on this floor, with a bill that really does gut the environmental laws, gut the environmental species, as well as the clean water act. So with that, i yield back whatever time may be remaining to my good friend from ohio. The chair the gentlelady from ohio. Ms. Kaptur how much time do we have remaining . The chair the gentlelady has one minute. Ms. Kaptur im pleased to yield the remaining one minute to congressman mcnerney who has fought so very hard on this issue. Mr. Mcnerney basically appealing to our colleagues, there are solutions out there we can find a whole state solution that all stake hold verse inputs in. Right now, thats not what this is. This is its pitting one region against the other. And its going to perpetuate whats been called the California Water war. We dont need to go there. Theres solutions. With that, i yield back. The chair the gentlelady from ohio. Ms. Kaptur i yield back the remaining time. The chair the gentlelady yields back. The gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Valadao i give the balance of my time, the well, one minute to the majority leader, kevin mccarthy. The chair the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Mccarthy i thank the gentleman for yielding. Im always amazed by the debates on this floor. I think theyre healthy. I like to listen to what people say and what people desire. Let me explain what ive heard, the desire to deal with the water crisis in california. Poem ask that whatever we do, do not change endangered species act. Could we Work Together on both sides. Could we make sure we stay within the biological opinion. Well, for maybe some of those people watching at home, they may not have watched the last three terms of this congress. Because you know, this drought is not new. But whats interesting, you just go back in this decade of the snow pack in california, lets go back five years. We had 160 of snow pack. N amazing year for california. But you know what was allocated from the state Water Project for water . 80 . 80 out of 160 . He next year, we had only 55 . In 2015, we only had 8 of snow pack. This year was an el nino so we got up to 87 . But if you look at the numbers, weve only pumped about the same amount of water as we did when we had 8 . You know, my parents would always read me bedtime stories. The one i loved the most was one when they talk about a grasshopper and an ant. It was interesting how one of them would save for that rainy day, in this case it would be putting the water away. It would be saving for that next year because as we go through these years our snow pack is always not the same. So if were not pumping the water down, whether is it going . Its going to the ocean. So for the last three terms, we have tried to solve the water crisis. And every time, weve heard the same arguments system of every term we did Something Different. A term ago, we got together with republicans and democrats and we worked with the our Senate Leaders on the other side. But when it gom time to make a final decision, i was told no, no we couldnt do this because it didnt go through committee. And there wasnt enough people in the room. So we said, all right, well go back to the drawing board. So this time, we went through and we put republicans and democrats in the room. You know whats interesting . It just so happens republicans are in the majority. Democrats are in the minority, but not in that room. There were more democrats than there were republicans and we stayed months in there talking afpbled we came to a lot of agreement. Maybe some people that were in the room wont say that on the outside but on the inside they agreed to a lot of pieces of the legislation. Well, i well tell you that those pieces that we agreed to are in this bill. Because you know what . We listened. We dont change the endangered species act. We dont go beyond the biological opinion. So youre concerned about fish . We say in this piece of gislation to pump higher unless theres a concern in harming the fish. And you dont have to come back to congress to change the level of mumping. So those solutions i hear on the floor are in the bill. I think its about time that we stop making false accusations and actually stand for what we need. And you know what, in these rooms, i heard a lot abdesalinization. I said, ill help with that. Because the whole concept of desalinization is well spend a lot of money with a lot of energy to take that ocean water and take the salt out of it and make it fresh water but dont you think its kind of smart of us first to make sure that our fresh water is not becoming salt water first . Thats all were asking here. Were asking, lets live within the biological opinion, were protecting the endangered species act, but were doing Something Different in california. Were planning for the future. Were planning for those years that you wont have the big snow back snow pack, were planning for the years california continues to grow. Were also planning for those people who work in the fields and planning for people who want to build the homes. Central valley may be a little different than every place else but those jobs are just as important as any job anywhere else in california. We have sat in the room. There were more on the Minority Side than the majority and we listened to you and we took what we heard and put it into a bill and the other thing we heard is that it had to be regular order, thats why it couldnt be in the omnibus bill, even though that was an idea from my Senate Colleague in the other house. You know what . This is regular order on the floor of the house with the ideas we heard and its in the bill. And i yield back. The chair the gentleman from california is recognized. The gentlemans time has expired. The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from california. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the noes have it mr. Mcnerney i ask for a recorded vote. The chair further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from california will be postponed. The clerk will read. The clerk page 26, line 6, temporary Operational Flexibility for first few storms of the year. Immediate significant negative impact on the longterm survival upon listed fish species under the endangered species act, the Central Valley project and the california state Water Project to capture peak flows. State Water Project and water rights protection. Offset for state Water Project. The secretary shall confer with the secretary of fish and wildlife on any determination for operations of the state Water Project pursuant to california fish and game code ection 2080. 1. Section 207, none of the funds shall be available to implement the settlement of title 10 of public law 1111111. None of the funds shall be available for the purchase of water to supplement instream flow. Section 209, the commegser of reclamation is directed to work with districts to maximize water basin. The water title 3, department of energy, energy programs, energy fficiency, 1 billion. Commarmente the clerk wilt suspend. For what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition . I have an amendment at the desk. The chair the clerk will report the amendment. The clerk page 43, insert million. 53 inby 45 million. The chair pursuant to House Resolution 74 , the gentleman from virginia and a member will control five minutes. Mr. Griffith this is a amendment. While the technologies could also be used that this amendment will plus up for natural gas or oil, i will focus on coal because that what happens in my district. There have been numerous burdensome regulations on the coal industry and industries that burn coal. The very least we can do is to make sure that coalfired power plants and have the technologies necessary to meet the standards being imposed. In recent months i had discussions with a number of folks both in southwest virginia and folks at the department of energy about how to make Clean Coal Technology available. There is a future for coal. And it lies in many ways in the technologies being supported by the department of energy. We would love to get parity. This doesnt get us to parity but gets it closer. And there is research and Development Dollars for the purpose of aiding the development of Clean Coal Technology. Just so you understand, the Research Money for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy would be at 1. 775 billion and the Research Money for fossil fuels would get plused up to 690. A little bit more of 21 going to other energies besides the fossil fuels. Some of the key providers in virginia have made it clear that al will be part of their strategy. Dom mississippiion power says they will use 30 of their will e of coal and now what we have to do is we have to make sure we get our technologies in line to make sure we continue to burn coal but burn it in a cleaner fashion. While there are various technologies currently in development, they will not be ready for commercial use for years to come unless we change the time line. My amendment will shorten that time by putting more research. We have two intersecting interests. Keep the jobs in southwest virginia and burn coal more cleanly. My amendment gives us a step forward in keeping the highpaying coal jobs and keeping those jobs while finding ways to burn the coal more cleanly. My amendment will ensure research, that research can be used and my favorite is chemical looping. This is a reasonable approach and i hope the body will adopt this amendment. I appreciate the bill has an increase over last years level. But when you are losing many jobs, you have to fight for everything you can get and i reserve. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentlelady rise . Ms. Kaptur mr. Chairman, i rise to claim time in op significance. The chair the gentlelady is recognized for five minutes. Ms. Kaptur i appreciate congressman griffiths efforts but i rise in opposition to the amendment. Let me just say that in the base bill that we have worked very hard on, there is 645 million in the account for fossil energy and thats about 13 million moreover the current fiscal year. In addition, its 285 million above the budget request. If you put it in that frame, we have done quite well with difficult choices inside our bill. The Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy account is lready 248 million below this year. And more than a billion below the budget request. O i would say to the gentleman i dont think that the offset you provided is a very good one. Renewable energy is at the f

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