[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 4813]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          SMARTER INTERPRETATION OF THE ENDANGERED SPECIES 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, amazingly, in the fourth year of record 
drought in California, the Bureau of Reclamation, in its infinite 
wisdom, decided to release 15,000 acre feet of additional water to help 
aid the downstream swimming of six steelhead fish--this in the time of 
agriculture being cut anywhere from 100 to 50 percent in some areas, 
receiving 0 percent allocations, cities seeing their needs for 
horticultural and ornamental needs being cut off, everybody having to 
scrimp and save on water in California, except for the Bureau's 
interpretation of the Endangered Species Act.
  It is high time we put accountability back into interpretation of the 
Endangered Species Act as what was put in place in 1973. 15,000 acre 
feet would be enough for 30,000 households for a year, 4,000 acres of 
crop land; yet the allocation to move six fish merrily down the stream 
is the priority right now in California.
  We need to build water storage. We need to have smarter 
interpretation of the Endangered Species Act and these water 
allocations, ostensibly, for fisheries.

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