[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 87 (Wednesday, May 19, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H2558-H2559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 WORSENING DROUGHT CRISIS IN CALIFORNIA

  (Mr. VALADAO asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. VALADAO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call attention to the 
worsening drought crisis in California, which has become so devastating 
that farmers are abandoning their crops in the fields.
  This was an asparagus field in Firebaugh, a small, rural town in my 
district. Recently, the farmer made the difficult decision to abandon 
the crop in that field to preserve water for his melon crops instead. 
You can clearly see the destruction this drought has wreaked on his 
farmland.
  Promised water will now not be delivered. Farmers all over California 
are unable to bring their crops to harvest, crops that would have fed 
families across the United States.
  With legislation like my bill, the RENEW WIIN Act, those farmers 
might have been able to save their fields rather than be forced to 
waste and destroy half-grown produce our Nation relies on California to 
grow.
  If the House majority continues to refuse to take up legislation to 
address the drought, farmers won't have to choose between asparagus or 
melons, because they won't have the water to grow any food at all.

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