On the recordJuly 16, 2015
I thank the gentlewoman. It provides additional flexibility to increase our water supply. We have to use all the water tools in the water management toolbox, and that includes increasing storage capacity, and it is about time that we began doing that. It also tries to address many of the other factors that are preventing the recovery of endangered species, like the invasive species that are the result of a lot of the decline in salmon in California. Let me quote Karen Hesse, an author of ``Out of the Dust.'' She said: ``The way I see it, hard times aren't only about money or drought or dust. Hard times are about losing the spirit and hope and what happens when dreams dry up.'' Well, ladies and gentlemen, I am here to tell you that a lot of the dreams are drying up in the people that I represent in the San Joaquin Valley. This drought is crushing their spirit, making them feel as if their dreams never become a reality and too often feel like they are the country cousin, literally and figuratively, of the two urban areas in southern California and northern California. The solution that California needs is not more talking points, but legislation working together on a bipartisan basis. This legislation starts that process. It is a work in progress. Obviously, it will be amended. It will be changed as we work with the Senate later this fall.
