Devin Nunes: “I would like to remind the gentleman from California that facts are a funny thing, and the Deputy Under Secretary…”

“I would like to remind the gentleman from California that facts are a funny thing, and the Deputy Under Secretary approved this bipartisan agreement in 1994. I remind the gentleman also that I defended his right in the Rules Committee. I defended the right of the Democrats to have all their amendments made in order. Mr. Chairman, when the Federal Government began to pass State preemption to take their water away, you can see here that up until this time we had full water allotment throughout California. Yes, when there was a drought, there were a few years we didn't have water, but look at the chaos that has erupted since. This is an important point. The Congress, by using State preemptions, has managed to take water away from cities, communities, and families. The opponents of this bill claim that somehow the salmon population is decreasing. We can see here in this graph at the bottom--I know it may be hard for some folks to see. The water exports are here. The green represents total water that flowed into the delta throughout the last 25 years. The red line indicates salmon populations. Lo and behold, there is no correlation between the water inflow into the delta and salmon population. But I will agree that the salmon population has declined, and this bill begins to fix that problem. Why? Because the delta smelt and salmon are being eaten by predator fish that are nonnative to the delta. Let me say that again. Striped bass, nonnative to the delta.…”