John Williams: “this amendment would conform the Montana water rights language in the bill to the language that this body passed in the…”

“this amendment would conform the Montana water rights language in the bill to the language that this body passed in the Colorado wilderness bill. The amendment changes neither the meaning nor the intent of the water rights section at all, but simply adds back to the language as originally drafted. As my colleagues know, water rights law is a delicate business, and frankly in our haste to draft clearer, more concise language, we strayed a bit from the Colorado formula. Several groups in Montana were not entirely comfortable about the new language, and, although no one really claimed that the language was not substantive, I want everyone to be comfortable with this water rights language because in Montana, as in so many other States, water rights is critically important, and so I am offering this language which restores a few words that were in the original Colorado language, and, in my judgment, this neither adds nor detracts from the water rights security that I had in the original language.”