[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 10 (Tuesday, January 26, 2010)]
[House]
[Page H361]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                    THE AGONY OF THE CENTRAL VALLEY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Dahlkemper). Under a previous order of 
the House, the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock) is recognized 
for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCLINTOCK. Madam Speaker, for many months, the Republicans on 
the Water and Power Subcommittee of the Natural Resources Committee 
have implored the majority Democrats to hold a hearing in the Central 
Valley of California to see and hear for themselves the damage that the 
Federal Government has caused by diverting 200 billion gallons of water 
from Central Valley farms in order to indulge the environmental left's 
pet cause, the delta smelt.
  After our pleas were met with continued stonewalling, we decided to 
hold a forum under our own auspices and to invite all members of the 
California congressional delegation, all members of the Natural 
Resources Committee and representatives of the Obama administration to 
come to Fresno to see firsthand what these policies have wrought.
  Instead, after we had announced the forum, the Water and Power 
Subcommittee chairwoman decided to meet on the same day in southern 
California to extol the virtues of water conservation. Congress has 
thus made clear its intention to sacrifice the people of the San 
Joaquin Valley upon the altar of environmental extremism.

  Despite heavy rains over the past month, the administration continues 
to blame a relatively mild drought for the fact that Valley farmers 
will receive only 5 percent of the water that they are entitled to. 
This does not explain how, in far more severe droughts than this, 
Valley farmers have received far greater allocations. Nor does it 
explain how these massive water diversions can be justified to support 
the delta smelt if indeed supplies were constrained.
  Had the Democrats in the subcommittee come to Fresno, they would have 
heard and seen the anguish of the people of the Central Valley of 
California. These water diversions have destroyed a half-million acres 
of the most productive farmland in America, and they have thrown 30,000 
Central Valley farm families into unemployment.
  They would have heard the stories of food lines in communities that 
once prided themselves on being the breadbasket of the Western United 
States. They would have heard about the frustration of seeing produce 
imported from China being handed out in these food lines to the very 
same American farmers who once supplied the very same produce to the 
entire world.
  And they would have seen the anger as the absent Interior Secretary's 
testimony to the Natural Resources Committee last year was played back, 
in which Mr. Salazar admitted that the Obama administration has the 
authority to turn the pumps back on, but that it chooses not to do so 
because that would be ``like admitting failure.''
  There is some good news. This afternoon, the day after our forum in 
Fresno, the Interior Secretary relented to the extent of releasing 
350,000 to 400,000 acre-feet of already allocated water to the Central 
Valley. Having demonstrated his authority to release the water that 
Central Valley farmers already own, he now needs to follow through and 
release the water that is being held hostage to the delta smelt.
  Meanwhile, Mr. Nunes of California has introduced H.R. 3105, the Turn 
on the Pumps Act, which does exactly the same thing that Congress did 
under far less severe circumstances several years ago for the farmers 
of New Mexico. Mr. Nunes has filed a discharge petition to bypass that 
subcommittee and bring the bill directly to the House for a vote. It 
needs 218 signatures. So far, it has 105, 104 Republicans and one 
Democrat.
  Madam Speaker, I assure you that it is not only the Central Valley 
that is suffering. The willful destruction of 500,000 acres of American 
farmland by these massive water diversions, all for the enjoyment and 
amusement of the 3-inch long delta smelt, is reflected in the rising 
prices for produce that families are feeling far beyond the 
congressionally created dust bowl of California's Central Valley.
  Nor is the delta smelt doing any better. Despite these massive water 
diversions, the delta smelt population fell back to the historic low in 
2005 and is now well below the high points recorded in the late 1970s. 
Given these findings, how can anybody argue that the delta pumping 
restrictions are benefiting the delta smelt?
  Madam Speaker, I promised to carry the plea from the many Americans 
who poured out their hearts to us in Fresno on Monday for Congress to 
come to the Central Valley and see what their policies have caused. I 
place their invitation before you.

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