Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. DENHAM. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of the bill to ensure again that the House takes the lead in taking action about this big crisis that we are having in California's Central Valley.
This measure puts a number of commonsense ideas on the table to alleviate the severity of today's drought. There is need for a Federal response, because California has a crosscutting network of both State and Federal water projects. With the passage of this bill, I hope the Senate will finally come to the table. If you don't like our idea, come up with one of your own.
We have to have storage. We have to have conveyance. We need to plan for the future. There are times when we have wet years, but if we don't store the water, we don't have it for drought years. It is common sense, and it should be bipartisan and it should be bicameral.
What I am most proud about on this bill is that you actually have Members from different regions of the State that have come together and said the time is now to finally come together on a solution for what we have and what we are facing today in California's Central Valley.
I am thankful to Mr. Valadao for not only bringing this bill up, but for also including my provisions which will create some more water storage, including Los Vaqueros and Exchequer and streamlining construction projects.
This bill also includes two of my bills: H.R. 2705, seeking to protect native salmon and steelhead on the Stanislaus River; and H.R. 2554, which would allow 100,000 new acre-feet of storage on New Melones reservoir.
We can do simple things to conserve more water. These two measures produce more water and alleviate pressure on supplies, and at no cost to the taxpayer.
Yesterday the Senate passed the farm bill, which we passed here last week. Without water, in California, having a farm bill doesn't matter a whole lot if you can't plant the crops that feed the rest of the Nation.
I urge my colleagues to pass this bill. The time is now to have a real water solution. Again, if you don't like this one, then come up with one of your own. Let's have some water storage. Let's actually have a dialogue, but let's not shut down residents of the Central Valley or drinking water across the State.
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