I just want to make sure for the record, Mr. Denham, that indeed your bill passed the Congress, and I am not sure about Mr. Murillo.

Long-term solutions must be part of the equation or we will repeat this destructive drought cycle once again.

Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that the letters Mayor Chavez brought with her today and the letters of my constituents on the impacts of the current drought be entered into the record.

Thank you, Chairman Hastings. Thank you for taking the time to come out and visit us here in the valley.

This is obviously a very important hearing, and this issue has been something that a lot of Members have been fighting before my time in Congress.

We had an agreement, a signed agreement that they were supposed to help us get our water back, and they have reneged on that.

Where will we get our food? Do you ever question about food safety?

the price of food will get to a point that maybe people will wake up.

I just think that until we can tell people up here definitively, if we reach a cost-sharing arrangement, that we can begin construction next year or in 18 months, nobody is believing us.

But does the Governor understand that we have a broken water system?

Well, there has to be a cost sharing. I voted for the Valadao legislation.

Today, I am calling on you, the Members of Congress gathered here today, to provide a solution to the man-made drought that is crippling my community.

I find, yes, I want more storage, but if we can't get that water through the delta, we are not utilizing the capacities we have now.

I am angry that we have failed to capture the water that lies available to us in times of plenty.

When a government cannot provide water to its citizens, that government has failed.

The sad part is the House has done the work. The Senate just stood there defensively in the face of the drought.

We must act and we must act now to resolve this problem, and we must do it in a bipartisan fashion.

I voted for all of those bills.