Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Chairman, before I begin, I thank Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Kaptur for their hard work and collaboration on this important bill.

I rise today to offer an amendment to H.R. 2028, the Energy and Water Appropriations Act, that provides additional, critical resources for the Bureau of Reclamation to undertake projects that address the historic and severe drought conditions across the West.

Mr. Chairman, one of the worst droughts in modern history is ravaging our Nation's crops, choking our fragile economic recovery, and placing our water supply in unprecedented jeopardy.

Last year, more than 60 percent of the contiguous United States suffered drought conditions, and the West continues to bear the brunt of this burden. In the Olympic Mountains of northwest Washington State, the snowpack contained just 7 percent of the average. In California, the drought is the worst to hit the State since record-keeping started in 1895. 2013 was the driest year on record, and 2014 was the hottest.

The impacts of this severe drought are harsh and far-reaching, threatening public health, degrading the environment, increasing the risk of wildfires, and hampering a wide range of industries.

In 2012, California's agriculture industry contributed over $45 billion to the United States economy. Last year, because of the drought, hundreds of thousands of acres were left fallow because sufficient water was unavailable. According to a University of California study, this cost the State $2.2 billion in direct economic output and the devastating loss of 17,100 seasonal and part-time jobs.

These effects will be felt by Americans across the country. This year, the price of fruits and vegetables is expected to rise 3 percent, in part due to the severe drought conditions in California.

Furthermore, continuing to draw down groundwater supplies in California will have dangerous public health impacts. In rural communities, where residents rely on wells for drinking water, reduced groundwater levels result in higher concentrations of contaminants, including dangerous nitrates and arsenic.

Stagnant pools have also created breeding grounds for mosquitoes. The California Department of Public Health announced in April that the State had a record-breaking number of deaths related to the mosquito-borne West Nile virus in 2014.

In addition to West Nile, the arid conditions could also increase the number of cases of valley fever, a potentially fatal disease caused by a fungus called Coccidioides that can grow in the soil and becomes airborne if the soil dries out. While the majority of people exposed to the spores do not exhibit symptoms, people who start to develop the disease can have cough, fever, headache, and, in rare cases, it can lead to death.

It is time for action at all levels of government to address the dangerous economic and public health impacts of ignoring this drought.

Back home in the southern California desert, local water agencies are working to help residents, businesses, and municipalities convert their lawns and landscaping into water-efficient desert landscapes.

At the Federal level, the Bureau of Reclamation is investing in public-private partnerships to help improve the delivery of water for agricultural users, which in turn allows them to invest in more water-efficient irrigation techniques, such as drip irrigation.

The Bureau can also help communities whose wells have run dry due to excessive groundwater pumping install relief wells that provide, in some cases, the only source of freshwater for an entire town. And through one of the most successful water conservation grant programs, the WaterSMART program, the Bureau has helped local water agencies, tribal governments, irrigation districts, and State agencies implement water conservation techniques that have conserved over 860,000 acre-feet of water since 2009.

For these reasons, Mr. Chairman, my amendment would simply shift funding away from taxpayer-subsidized fossil fuel research that benefits the wealthiest oil companies that can pay for the research themselves and redirect it toward critical Bureau of Reclamation activities to address the impacts of this devastating drought and help mitigate future droughts.

We must put the American economy, our constituents, and the public's health above politics and Big Oil. I urge my colleagues to come together to support my amendment.

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Mr. RUIZ. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Again, I thank Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Kaptur for their leadership and hard work on this bill.

I urge my colleagues to come together in a bipartisan fashion and support my amendment to ensure the Bureau dedicates essential resources towards projects that will help keep American-made food on the table and prevent a dangerous rise in food prices across the country, again, just taking money from taxpayer-subsidized research that they can afford on their own and putting it to combating our drought.

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