[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 141 (Wednesday, September 11, 2024)]
[House]
[Pages H5187-H5188]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     WATER FOR CROPS IN CALIFORNIA

  (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, we recently had a field hearing in central

[[Page H5188]]

California facilitated by the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Bentz), 
chairman of the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, and 
hosted by the gentleman from California (Mr. Duarte).
  We were talking about the water supply issue for the State of 
California. Why do my colleagues have to hear about water in 
California? These are the crops that California grows right here on 
this poster. Somewhere between 90 and 99 percent of them are grown in 
my home State.
  If they aren't grown there, then U.S. consumers will not receive 
them. They would have to get them from somewhere else, some other 
country, with whatever quality and supply steadiness issues they might 
have there. It is important that the water supply in California 
continue to be directed to agriculture instead of directed to the 
Pacific Ocean.
  We are losing tens of millions of acre-feet because we can't seem to 
harness the water with the existing dams we have because they let it 
all out due to dubious supposed environmental needs, whether it is 
fish, whether it is the smelt, which no longer really exists in the 
delta, so they find another smelt to call endangered and take more 
water away.

  We need water for agriculture to feed this country.

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