Jared Huffman: “The alternative vision that we offer is certainly not one of austerity and sacrifice; it is one of reality. There was a…”

“The alternative vision that we offer is certainly not one of austerity and sacrifice; it is one of reality. There was a time when the reclamation program from the Federal Government proceeded on the assumption that rain follows the plow. It was completely wishful, completely delusional, and we seem to be hearing vestiges of that old argument even today. What Democrats offer are real solutions--solutions that have been underfunded by Republicans for too many years, solutions that will generate more water and more water supply reliability than the Republican alternative we are considering. We continue to hear representations that are simply not correct. The claim that we haven't built a major reservoir in California since 1979, tell that to the folks that built Los Vaqueros Reservoir or Diamond Valley Reservoir or many others. We hear that the doubling of the population in the last few decades is what is driving this crisis. Well, in fact, the urban centers where that population has doubled have held their demand flat. The population has gone up. The water consumption has not. We continue to hear that this bill--remarkably, we continue to hear that it doesn't preempt State law. Well, Mr. Chairman, I would refer you simply to the CBO report at page 2, which recognizes that H.R.…”