George Miller: “Mr. Speaker, this amendment has been described earlier in the debate. It is offered on behalf of myself and the…”

“Mr. Speaker, this amendment has been described earlier in the debate. It is offered on behalf of myself and the gentleman from California (Mr. Brown). The purpose of this amendment, somebody said they want to be plain speaking, is let us just do something about the Salton Sea. The point is this: When we make a decision to commit the $350 million, we ought to do that which we know works. The many shortcomings in the current bill that is before us have been outlined in both the objections by taxpayer groups, by environmental groups and by the Clinton Administration with respect to serious problems that exist in bill. But with respect to the studies, let me say that the legislation offered by the committee goes ahead and does some studies relating to feasibility. With respect to dealing with the salinity, there is a whole other body of studies that are in that legislation and in our legislation. There are scientific studies that deal with this issue of nutrient loading, that deal with the issue of botulism, that deal with other concerns that are killing the fish and wildlife at the current time that have got to be developed, and any project that we develop for the Salton Sea should make sure that it deals with the full array of problems that are presented by the current conditions in the Salton Sea. That is terribly important, because we know that the salinization of the Salton Sea is going to continue to get worse.”