Devin Nunes: “For 7 or 8 years, continually, the Republicans have offered solutions and, continually, nearly all of the Democrats have…”

“For 7 or 8 years, continually, the Republicans have offered solutions and, continually, nearly all of the Democrats have voted ``no.'' This isn't about solutions, because the real solution the left wants is to idle over a million acres of farm ground in the San Joaquin Valley. This is why the forefathers of our State built a system that would withstand a drought of 5 years. Look, we need additional storage, but everyone in this body--anyone who knows anything about water--knows that, if you don't fix the plumbing in the delta, if you don't deal with the San Joaquin River settlement and if you don't build a few new storage projects, over a million acres of farm ground are going to go idle. Those are the facts. Conveniently, most of my friends who are up here speaking on the left live in the coastal areas and get their water-- they steal their water--from our area to give themselves pristine drinking water. That is what they do. Now we are going to be left with the chaos that has developed from over a million acres of farm ground coming out of production unless the Senate can take and act on this legislation quickly. Mr. Chair, in the summer of 2002, shortly before I was elected to Congress, I sat through an eye-opening meeting with representatives from the Natural Resources Defense Council and several local environmental activist groups.…”