Date: 2011-02-16
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Madam Chair. we all recognize the need for us to reduce the deficit and curtail unreasonable spending. but this continuing resolution obviously goes far too in the extreme direction of harming our economy and harming many of the services that our citizens have come to rely on to finish and bring their lives together. whether theyre working. whether they need health care. whether their children need education. and this resolution is harmful for that. But I want to speak for the moment on section 1475. which is a rider that is added to this legislation that will harm the California economy. harm our ability to plan into the future for the use of water. We have a water system in California thats dramatically oversubscribed. and were in the process now of bringing that together to make sure that we can meet the future economic needs of our State and also the needs of the various sectors of that economy. whether they be the fishing sector. they be the energy producing sector. the farming sector or the settlement of our cities. But with this riderthis rider. first of all. throws out 18 years of litigation successfully brought to an end. a long conflict on the San Joaquin River to provide for that settlement. a settlement that is agreed to by almost everyone. But more importantly. for the sake of the longterm water using. this amendment defunds the biological opinions that were going forward that are the cornerstone to provide for the final elements of the plan to provide California and the apportionment of that water for the protection of the fisheries and the economies in northern California. for the protection in the water supplies of the Central Valleys economy and the needs of the great urban areas of southern California. That planning must be completed. This is as close as weve come. After decades and decades of water wars in the State of California. we finally have the opportunity now to bring the various parties together from all geographic regions. from all sectors of the economy. and plan the future of our State so that we will have the water that is necessary to secure our economy. to secure our families. to secure our agricultural areas of the State. and to provide for the great ecology of the State of California. Weve gone through some disasters. if you will. because of the droughts. because of water cycles. and my colleague from further north in the State. MIKE THOMPSON. laid out this. We saw thousands of jobs lost. the fisheries decimated because of political water decisions that were made over the last several years that decimated the salmon run. not only affecting just the San Francisco Bay delta but affecting the coastal regions of our State and the coastal regions of Oregon and Washington. These are important fisheries. This is an important part of our economy. Its a renewable part of our economy if we take care of it. but if we have mindless riders that are put onto legislation like the one provided in section 1475. it will bring an end to these negotiations. Its taken a long time to get the water parties from the south. the water parties from industry. the water parties from agriculture. from the environmental community and the government. the Federal Government and State government together. They are sitting at that table and theyre working it through. Just in the last couple of days. we see the delta planning organization put forth its first document to say what the requirements will be for the conservation habitat plan that all of these elements from north and south California working on. This amendment simply kicks that negotiating table over. It drives the parties away from the negotiation. and California goes back into water uncertainty. economic uncertainty. ecological uncertainty that our State cannot continue to have if were going to grow our economy. if were going to come out of this recession. So I would hope that on passage the Members would vote against this continuing resolution. understanding the kind of damage that these kinds of riders that were inserted in the middle of the night on behalf of a few special interests have the opportunity to really destroy. destroy bipartisan geographical negotiations that are the most promising in the last 40 years in the history of our State. The opposition from so many of the water users across the State. no matter where they reside. to this rider is wellknown. to the fishing community. to so many parts of our economy in the San Joaquin- Sacramento Bay delta. and to the future of our ability to get a handle on these water issues that have plagued us for so many years in California. I would hope that we would reject this provision of this legislation.