Political Quotes

“Mr. Chair, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 23 because it upends decades of State and federal water law and needlessly pits water users against one another. On the heels of the worst drought in California's history, this bill mandates that certain interests come out ahead of others. California has just recently emerged from six years of a punishing drought that forced every resident to conserve water, caused millions of acres of agricultural land to be fallowed, and dramatically increased our State's risk of major wildfires. The drought was a massive disaster and Congress should respond by investing in long-term resilience against future droughts such as water conservation, recycling, groundwater recharge, and desalination. What Congress should not be doing is using the drought as an excuse to permanently upend a century of water law and countless protections for threatened and endangered wildlife. H.R. 23 weakens or overrides decades of State and federal law, including the State and federal Endangered Species Acts; the National Environmental Policy Act; the Central Valley Project Improvement Act; and the San Joaquin River Settlement Act. This list should set off alarm bells for any proponent of States' rights or cooperative federalism. For over a century, the Federal Government has deferred to State water law whenever possible. The GROW Act unwinds that history entirely.…”