Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, H.R. 4582, the Save Our Salmon Act, which I introduced earlier this year, removes a contradiction in Federal law. This Federal law mandates that not only do we double the amount of threatened and endangered species, the salmon and steelhead, that we spend so much time, effort, and money trying to save, but the contradiction is it also wants us to double the striped bass that eat 98 percent of the fish we are trying to save. This is a simple bill that is bipartisan that will save taxpayer dollars and that will save our water in California while addressing what we feel is a simple mistake. Under the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, the CVPIA, this doubling goal was set in place in 1992. Again, the steelhead and the salmon are being eaten by the striped bass, which is a nonnative predator fish. This mandated population doubling of the predator fish has proven contradictory to protecting native species under the Endangered Species Act. This bill not only removes this provision, but at the request of the administration, my bill also removes other sections in the CVPIA which provide for the implementation of the strategies to double the striped bass. NOAA, NMFS, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife have all indicated that predation of juvenile salmon is one of the primary stressors to these endangered species. In California, predation is rampant.…”