Alan Simpson: “I appreciate the remarks that the gentleman just made. It would have been helpful, if he was so concerned about the…”

“I appreciate the remarks that the gentleman just made. It would have been helpful, if he was so concerned about the drought--which I am sure you are. I don't mean to imply that you are not. But it would have been helpful if you would have actually voted for some of the amendments that might have addressed the problem, like the McClintock amendment that just passed that said you can't take water and buy it and flush fish down the river when people need it. The reality is this motion to recommit will not help with the drought conditions in California at all. There are only two things that will help relieve the drought. One of them we have no control over. It comes from a higher power. It is called rain and snow. We can't legislate that. {time} 1030 The second thing is that maybe we could start listening to some of the people who have been advocating to address this problem for several years--Congressman Nunes, Congressman Calvert, Congressman Valadao, Congressman McCarthy, Congressman McClintock, Congressman LaMalfa. They have made real proposals that would require the operation of the complex California water system so that it considered the lives and jobs and families of people before it did fish. Mr. Speaker, this amendment doesn't do anything. It won't help the drought conditions in California. We have already put money into the grid issue to try to make sure that we secure the grid so that it is not subject to attacks.…”