water agencies that are dramatically impacted by the drought and if it becomes law it will provide additional assistance it is not a silver bullet it will not solve the regulatory drought and the drought  facing our state i have been outspoken in my disagreement with secretary salazar as a result of the operations of the federal and state water projects we need water this regulatory drought caused by three consecutive dry years with consecutive dry years has devastated my district no district has been more impacted we have levels of forty to thirty six percent turn on the pumps the fact of the matter is is that we've had a host of disagreements with how the federal projects have been operated as a result of a biological pinioned that was required as a result of a court litigation that goes back to the previous administration a logical opinion that is putting the constraints on the pumps is flawed the secretary of interior has not used his discretion in my opinion to provide additional water as a result of the farmers and the farm workers that have been dramatically impacted by this legislation will be helpful but let's be clear it is not a solution to the overall california is broken last year the state legislature and the governor work on a piece of legislation that will provide long term fixes but let's be clear about it without the administration and the support of the congress  hearing i don't need to be lectured about the plight and the difficulty facing my district i talk with these water managers and these farmers and these farm workers every day i've been in the food line lectured about how difficult things are i live it every day and my constituents and that's why i'm out there all the time let me close by saying that it's nonsensical and that's why the national academy of science must in fact act as a body to provide really simple valley we have to take every possible step we can and that's why we're here today to take one more step whether we turn on the pumps or not this measure is important and it's important for us to circulate and reuse the water that we have we have tremendous water resources in our country and in the state of california in particular if you compare their water resources that we have in california to the state of israel where they have one small river but they use forty two times and we have a wealth of opportunity in california we can't even what we've got there now that is ridiculous and we have to act some small farm painted communities on the west side to the south of us have unemployment of over forty percent i daresay that any other large community or urban setting that have that kind of unemployment right there be marching in protest we're expected to stop that and wait for divine intervention to get our water back in we have to act and we have to act now and that's why i'm here today in the central valley of california and in california in general we have this bill introduced by my colleague jim acosta addresses one of the biggest challenges to implement a water project in california which is money many of the projects that could free up water and protect the environment while providing relief for thousands  water allocation this year despite recent heavy rain the allocation is expected to be much lower the devastation in the valley is at a level equal to the devastation suffered by those after hurricane katrina in new orleans economically a d we need your help but frankly dealing with this growing problem by not dealing with this growing problem sooner congress the last several administrations including this one and the courts now thank you madam chairwoman nearly two years ago at a field hearing in fresno you said quote the water situation here in california is critical the situation has created hardships on water agencies throughout the state affecting not only its economy affecting people our communities forcing us to be proactive and providing more certainty of water for our communities on madam chairwoman your proclamation this committee has done absolutely nothing to address the problem this committee had taken real action we would not be faced with the state allocation of water of five percent the lowest in history and soon to be released federal allocation that will probably also be the lowest in history so once again i come before this committee to ask my colleagues to take real action to resolve the water crisis in california unfortunately the legislation before the committee today does no such thing as you know i requested a bill the turn on the pumps act to be included in today's hearing a bill that would immediately bring relief to the families of valley instead of continuing the reckless and action of this committee my request as you may remember nearly all the members of this committee the speaker of the house senators feinstein and boxer all voted in two thousand and three to provide relief for the citizens new mexico let's take a look at what happened in two thousand and three and may sound familiar to you as a result of litigation by radical environmental groups a federal judge ordered water taken away from urban agricultural users to protect the silvery mineral a three inch bait fish this action immediately threaten the water supply the city of albuquerque as well as many other users in the region such as farmers and indian tribes in reaction to this crisis one politician declared quote the french environmental community which wants to take away the city's destiny wants to take water away from the mouths of our children will not prevail not as long as i am in office unquote you may be surprised at this statement came from the democratic mayor of albuquerque martin chavez who subsequently ran for the united states senate in mexico but had to drop out clearly if you not walk the radical environmentalist line you will be disowned by the liberal le mr chavez knew that the radical environmentalists were threat to his community to the people he represented bought them and thanks to a bipartisan vote by this congress he won the people in a mexico were spared catastrophic water shortages today we have a chance to show the people of california that they are too represented in congress that their problems will receive more than lip service from this government but they will receive the same respect the citizens of new mexico receive the three inch baitfish is destroying communities in san  valley is no different than the three inch bait fish that threaten the water supply of albuquerque here's a picture of the silvery minnow and california's delta smell you can see these fish could be twin despite what the radical environmental community says the smelt species is not in jeopardy of extinction in fact here's a report the c r s did you can see all the dots on the map up here where all the smell live so the same people that voted to help the people of new mexico are now blocking relief for californians today this committee's inaction is forced thousands of californians to seek relief and to line the valley that has produced the bulk of our nation's fruits and vegetables the valley that is bed the world is now the valley that has to rely on communist china for food rations this box of carrots was handed out at a food bank in the san joaquin valley as this great country declined to the point where we are importing communist character to a region that produced eighty nine percent of our nation's character supply madam chairwoman the people's valley do not want welfare they do not want your bailout and they definitely do not want your communist parents thank you and i think this committee will now recess we have three and a half minutes to get to the floor for the vote we will  come back in about half an hour there five to six votes and we thank you for your patience we are now r