Political Quotes

“I thank the Senator from California for her steadfast support of doing the right things on clean water and clean air and for focusing on this issue for her State because ultimately she wants water for her State. She knows litigation is not the route to get it. She knows that there are things we can be doing here but that we have to get people to support that. So I thank her for her obligation to making sure her constituents get real results. This rider is a giveaway to projects that are basically described as deadbeat dams, projects in California that are opposed by tribes and fishermen and sportsmen and environmental communities. Basically, it writes a blank check to them, allowing millions of taxpayer dollars to be used to construct dams throughout the West without any further congressional approval. That, in and of itself, should cause our colleagues to pause. You are going to go home and have to tell your constituents all of a sudden that someone is building a dam on a beautiful river in your State and you can't do anything about it. I would hope our colleagues in those 17 Western States that would be impacted by this would do something to help tell our colleagues to strip out this controversial provision and send it back to the House in a clean bill. In addition, as I mentioned, section 4007 authorizes the Secretary to pay up to one-quarter of the cost of State water storage in any of these 17 reclamation States.…”