Ann Kirkpatrick: “This is the final amendment to the bill. It will not kill the bill nor send it back to committee. If it is adopted, this…”

“This is the final amendment to the bill. It will not kill the bill nor send it back to committee. If it is adopted, this bill will immediately proceed to final passage. Water is a critical issue in Arizona and especially in my district. Water can be, also, a divisive issue. In Congress, we need to provide leadership and work together on long-term solutions that protect our water sources, communities, tribes, and local economies. In particular, I believe this bill needs language added to strengthen the rights of our tribal governments. Arizona's District 1 is over 90 percent public lands. It contains several important waterways, national forests, and recreation areas, and it has 12 Native American tribes. In my previous term, I introduced the White Mountain Apache Tribe Water Quantification Act, which was signed into law. It was a historic agreement that created jobs, protected tribal water rights, and established reliable water sources for many of Arizona's communities. As this legislation moves forward, I want to ensure that we protect the following priorities: our tribal communities, our fishing and sportsmen, our drought mitigation efforts, and our ability to fight wildfires. And we need to manage water rights and land-use permits in a balanced way. We can do this in a way that respects tribes, preserves recreation, and protects our communities from droughts and wildfires that have already caused so much devastation in Western States.…”