Political Quotes

“This is the final amendment to the bill, which, unfortunately, will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended. Perhaps all of you have heard that there is a drought in the West. If you haven't, I am here to tell you there is a serious drought in the West--not just California, but throughout the West. This particular piece of legislation is said to deal with the drought. It does not. This legislation does two things that every one of us ought to be concerned about. First of all, it is a water grab. It takes water from somebody and gives it to somebody else. {time} 1815 Secondly, if you are interested in states' rights, if you are interested in the power of a community to decide its own future, you had better be paying attention to this bill. This bill is very, very much about the power of a community, a power of a State to decide what it wants to do with its water. This is an issue of profound importance to every State in the West that has a reclamation project, because this bill sets out for the very first time the Federal Government overriding State constitution, in this case the constitution of the State of California, State water law, and contracts. This is serious stuff. If this were to somehow solve the crisis in California, you may accept it. But it does not. It does not create 1 gallon of water.…”