[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 37 (Tuesday, March 1, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H1186]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      CALIFORNIA WATER ALLOCATION

  (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, last week, Federal officials announced 
California water allocations for water year 2022--this one--this spring 
right now where growers are getting ready to plant--or would be.
  Despite their hard work as growers, their productivity and 
responsibility of feeding the rest of the Nation being on their 
shoulders, they were put dead last in line for water allocations. That 
is right. Behind even the mindless dumping of freshwater into our 
oceans to save nonexistent fish.
  Even though California farmers produce most of the Nation's fruit, 
nut, and vegetable crops, many received zero percent of their 
allocation--this at a time of many bare store shelves in the grocery 
stores, this time of crisis of an international proportion where we 
should be making our own energy and our own food crops.
  We are going to become more reliant on imported food if we don't grow 
this 2022 crop year because we are growing next year's crop right now--
including on my rice farm at home.
  These water allocations will indeed have drastic consequences for the 
farmers, their employees, and the small towns that they populate all up 
and down California and indeed other States as well.
  So growers are at their wit's end. We need President Biden and others 
to reallocate and prioritize water for farmers, not for fish.

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