Date: 2009-06-17
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. Members of the House. you know were here in this situation -because a court ruled after the last administration trampled through the Fish and Wildlife Service. the National Marine Ocean Service. and altered scientific findings. studies. and opinions that we could no longer conduct the business of the Central Valley Project. I didnt see my friends on the other side of the aisle raise one objection at the time that those actions were taking place. at the time that criminal behavior was taking place.. I didnt see them raise one objection when the northern rivers were destroyed and fishery seasons have been closed for years and families have lost their businesses. lost their livelihoodwhether they were going to seed the fish or they were small businesses on the north coast or small busineses on the Oregon borderand those political decisions were made. and they devastated the salmon runs. I didnt see that happen. We have seen now. as the environment has deteriorated in the San Francisco Delta and bay area. small businesses have closed up. many people have lost their livelihoods. and. yes. its very intense in the Central Valley. But I dont see some of my colleagues on the other side who represent areas that have a hundred i ercent of the water. In fact. some of the valley farmers have 70 percent of their allocation in this drought year. Somehow to blame this on this moment. this administration thats been in office for 5 or 6 months. when in fact for 8 years there was a design to exploit this system by opening up the pumps. devastate the system. and now those chickens have come home to roost and those illegalities have been found out. The court has asked for direction. This administration put together a biological opinion. It was peer reviewed. and theyve offered that up to begin the discussions of how we settle some of these problems in the delta. south of the delta. and north of the delta. That now is going to be thrown into chaos if this amendment succeeds to become law because then we will not have those tools available to us. So well go into another y]ear that may be a drought and we will not have the systemwide approach to dealing with that to help the families in the Central Valley. in southern California. in northern California. These are all of the same families. These are all the same peoplewho are looking foi work. looking for jobs. But the fact of the matter is. if you devastate this water system. they all pay the price. So now were trying to recover from 8 years of mismanagement. from 8 years of illegal activity. from 8 years of throwing science out the door. and now were left with that wreckage. Theres a lot of cleanup to do after this Bush administration. and this is one of those projects. And this project now has to be rehabilitated. this project has to be brought together so that the Central Valley Project can serve its clients. can serve the needs of the whole State of California. And if it doesnt happen that way. its not going to work politically. its n6t going to work environmentally. its not going to work scientifically. and its not going to work economically. Weve just been through 8 years where people tried to segment this statewide project into little bits of pieces for their advantages. and if they had enough politics on their side. they took that advantage whether it was supported by the law or not. And this is the. carnage that has been left behind because we missed 8 years of opportunity to rebuild bhis system so that it could serve the needs for which it was designed. Thats the tragedy of what has taken place here. Thats the tragedy that were trying to overcome. Thats the tragedy that will be compounded by the Nunes amendment if its adopted because it will set all of this back many. many monthsif not yearsin this effort to rebuild the Central Valley Project of California so it can meet the demands of which are put upon it.