On the recordJuly 15, 2015
I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong opposition to H.R. 2898. California is in the fourth year of a devastating drought, and what is on the House floor today does nothing to address the crisis, but, rather, it sets California back by fanning the flames of century-old water wars. The story of California and the West's drought is known across the country because it is unprecedented. Not only has our annual rainfall plummeted, but for the first time in our history, California has no snowpack--none. The snow in the Sierras once sustained us through the dry summers and replenished our streams with cold water, but not this year. Folsom Reservoir, just upstream from the city of Sacramento, is projected to be at the lowest it has been by the end of September, less than 15 percent of capacity. This is not due to government mismanagement or environmental restrictions; it is due to the lack of rain. We need real solutions to this crisis, short- and long-term solutions. There are no silver bullet solutions. It is an all-of-the- above approach, and it should certainly not be the fear-mongering legislation like H.R. 2898. For the short term, our State has used the flexibility it already has to move the water and make timely deliveries to make the best of this very, very bad situation. We also need to continue our conservation efforts and fix our infrastructure where there are leaks and wastes, but that is just for the short term.…
