Political Quotes

“I am very pleased to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. LaMalfa), a member of the Natural Resources Committee. Mr. LaMALFA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for working with me in this committee on this important topic. Mr. Speaker, I am a farmer in northern California, and when I hear talk of the water wars being reignited, it has been a one-sided war, with the amount of farmers and people that work in the Valley. They haven't had the bullets to be in a water war because we have been losing for a long time. Hundreds of thousands of acre-feet that have been diverted already in the past adds up to millions over the years for other uses, besides what has been going in the North Valley, South Valley, and Central Valley. I heard this comment a while ago. Powerful, small people were how legislators looked at us in the valley--powerful, small people. Do these folks standing in the unemployment line look powerful to you? Do the farmers who have been fighting against this for years and years look powerful when we keep losing these battles one after another? To build more storage, we would have water for everybody in California. This measure here today would help everybody in California that is part of State water projects or the Central Valley Project. Twenty million people in California would see additional benefit by taking-- and here's the concept here, folks--excess water during high flows that now would be just flowing out to the Pacific.…”