[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 108 (Monday, July 13, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H5094]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              WESTERN WATER AND AMERICAN FOOD SECURITY ACT

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 2898, the 
Western Water and American Food Security Act. This is by Representative 
Valadao from California. I appreciate his hard work and bipartisan 
efforts on this.
  California's drought is having devastating effects on agriculture and 
our food supply nationwide. Last year, drought-related water cutbacks 
caused an estimated 400,000 acres to be fallowed, costing thousands of 
jobs and leaving consumers less food choices in the United States.
  While the solution is certainly not going to be all encompassed in 
one bill, this will be a great start towards getting California back 
where we need to be for drought relief.
  We cannot stand by and watch one more family suffer, small businesses 
and our economy leaving the State, when we should have those jobs right 
in the valley.
  It ends the finger-pointing and blame game, and provides desperately 
needed short-term relief while advancing commonsense policies to fix 
the situation in the long term.
  It would update Federal laws and streamline water permitting so we 
could build Sites Reservoir in northern California. Indeed, it also 
ensures sound and real-time science and water delivery methods so we 
don't have a situation where we are leasing 15,000 acre-feet twice to 
benefit less than 30 steelhead fish.
  Let's get on with getting California's water supply back on track so 
that this important legislation is not stalled by the usual suspects on 
the environmental left.
  Indeed, the proof will be in the pudding.

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