[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 58 (Wednesday, May 2, 2001)]
[House]
[Pages H1830-H1831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               GOVERNMENT BANKRUPTING KLAMATH BASIN AREA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Herger) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HERGER. Mr. Speaker, a government-caused disaster is bankrupting 
an

[[Page H1831]]

entire farming community in the Klamath Basin of Northern California. 
Families are being told simply that there is zero water for farming 
this year. It is an unspeakable tragedy and an appalling example of the 
power of the Endangered Species Act.
  This is a poster child for the need to reform this misguided law and 
for all that is wrong, unjust and unbalanced with extreme environmental 
policies. It is a heartbreaking example of how people, families and, 
indeed, entire communities, can be sacrificed at the stroke of a 
biologist's pen, and based on nothing more than incomplete data, 
speculation and guesswork.
  There is little consideration given to the human species under the 
Endangered Species Act. Once an animal or fish species is listed, its 
needs must come first, before the rights and livelihoods of the 
American people. This is not reasonable, it is not balanced, it is not 
prudent.
  Farmers should be irrigating right now, but the normally bustling 
towns of the Klamath Basin in Northern California and Southern Oregon 
are quiet. Without water for the crops that drive this economy, farmers 
cannot work in their fields; the fertilizer companies, the maintenance 
shops, all agricultural-related businesses are closing. Delivery trucks 
and processing plants sit idle. Unemployment will rise.
  More than 12 years ago the government decided that a species of fish 
was in decline and had to be protected under the Endangered Species 
Act, despite the fact that nobody really knows how many fish there are, 
how many there have been historically, and how many there should be. 
But because the ESA requires protection at any cost and all costs, the 
water has been shut off completely and there will be no farming this 
year. The Federal Government has reneged on its promise and has left 
these farmers wondering how this could happen.
  But, Mr. Speaker, this need not happen. Three decades ago this 
country put men on the moon. With technology and know-how, the 
impossible became possible, and I know that we can do this in the 
Klamath Basin and throughout the country.
  Protecting the environment and maintaining our local economies need 
not be mutually exclusive. In fact, we have studies that tell us, as 
surprising as this may seem, that more water does not necessarily equal 
more fish.

                              {time}  1630

  The issue is one of water quality, and we can do some things to 
improve that for the fish without simply taking water from our farmers. 
But the extreme environmentalists want this to be an either/or 
proposition.
  Many of us have been working for years to fundamentally change the 
ESA, knowing that it allows for just this kind of tragic result. We 
have simply asked for reasonableness, for common sense, for balance 
between the needs of people and the needs of fish.
  We have seen lives lost because of the Endangered Species Act, 
preventing us from fixing levees. We have seen the rights of property 
owners trampled. Now we are seeing people lose all they have or worked 
for. The loss of life, the loss of livelihoods, the trouncing of 
fundamental rights to freedom and the pursuit of the American dream, 
all of this is occurring under the extremes of the Endangered Species 
Act.
  I would venture to guess that this is not what the American people 
truly want, and that this is not what Congress envisioned when it 
crafted this legislation more than 30 years ago.
  I am committed to making sure the entire Nation knows that this is 
happening, and to working with this Congress and with the 
administration in making sure that it does not happen ever again. We 
need a fundamental change in this law so that we can prevent our local 
economies and the environment from being pitted against one another. If 
we put a man on the moon, I know that we can do this.

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