[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 163 (Wednesday, November 4, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H12293]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      WATER FOR SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY

  (Mr. COSTA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, I joined together with Congressmen 
Cardoza and Radanovich in a bipartisan effort to introduce legislation 
on the part of our ongoing efforts to bring more water to the San 
Joaquin Valley, and today I rise in support of that bill.
  As I have said before on this floor, regulatory and hydrological 
reductions in water supply deliveries have devastated my district and 
parts of the Central Valley in California, leaving our cities and 
communities in many areas with unemployment levels of 30 to 40 percent.
  This legislation calls for the review of the Federal biological 
opinions that have reduced the amount of water flowing to the valley, 
leaving some of the hardest working people you'll ever meet in your 
life ironically standing in food lines, unable to provide food for 
their families. Our farmers are in danger of losing their farms, and in 
some cases they have held them for generations.
  The two biological opinions in question, one issued by the Fish and 
Wildlife Service and the other by the National Marine Fisheries 
Service, focus solely on Central Valley. They need to be reconsidered 
because I believe they are flawed.
  For the last 18 months, I have repeatedly said there is not one 
single cause for the decline in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River 
Delta system and their fisheries. This legislation will assure that all 
environmental factors are taken into account.

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