Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I rise today to speak about drought legislation that is critical to the State of Arizona. As everyone knows, water is a controversial issue in the West. Arizona and California have long been at odds on a number of water- related issues, particularly the Colorado River. Since the beginning of this Congress, I have worked to advance Arizona's water priorities. That included working with our neighbors across the Colorado River to get a Flake-Feinstein amendment included in the Energy bill. This amendment, which was adopted on the floor, would allow dams to be more efficient and enhance water storage. In addition to this amendment, I have introduced the Western Water Supply and Planning Enhancement Act in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. I have worked with many of my colleagues on the committee to move this western drought bill through regular order, work that included attempting to find a way to reconcile this bill with the California drought bill in order to advance all of our priorities. I am disappointed that instead of continuing with the committee process, a California-only deal was airdropped into an unrelated WRDA conference report. This was done at the last minute, circumventing regular order, and leaving Arizona and other western State priorities out to dry.…”