Ed Royce: “The reason we are here today has to do with the drought in California that, frankly, could have been solved had we been…”

“The reason we are here today has to do with the drought in California that, frankly, could have been solved had we been allowed to move forward with the storage that we need. Because the process now is one of watching the rains come, watch the water run out to the ocean, and we do not have the ability to block the red tape that prevents us from building the storage that would hold that water so that we can use it during the drought. What was the consequence of us not being able to address that? And why is it so important that we pass the GROW Act here that David Valadao from the Central Valley has introduced? Well, the consequences were one of having thousands of jobs disappear. The consequences were having dead crops plowed under in hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland that had been left idle. The consequences were that billions of dollars were lost in the State. And, frankly, the State of California produces 400 commodities that are one- third of the country's vegetables. It is two-thirds of this country's fruit. It is two-thirds of the nuts produced. The industry brings in $47 billion. When this happens, the consequences are felt by the farmers and by the people across California, by those thrown out of their jobs. This is an incredibly important industry not only in California, but for the entire country. So, for years, we haven't gotten the water we paid for or contracted for.…”