On the recordDecember 8, 2016
WRDA has always been a bipartisan piece of legislation. I have always voted for WRDA. I voted for this WRDA earlier in this Congress before a 90-page poison pill, California water provision, was dropped in at the very last minute. Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, I must rise today in opposition to this WRDA in its current form. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on it and force a vote on a clean WRDA so that we can have the many projects, the many benefits, the aid to the people of Flint, Michigan, that they so richly deserve and have waited far too long to receive. We are here, Mr. Speaker, because, unfortunately, the House Republicans have a problem with regular order. It is something that they have talked a lot about. We have heard many promises about an open legislative process, and yet here they come again with the latest attempt to jam through dangerous California water provisions that were crafted behind closed doors, without public review or scrutiny, and they are being thrown on the House floor literally in the final hours of this Congress. Let's not forget that this same last-minute, closed-door maneuver, the same water grab, nearly torpedoed last year's must-pass spending bill.…





