[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 11431-11432]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1230
          WESTERN WATER AND AMERICAN FOOD SECURITY ACT OF 2015

  (Mr. DENHAM asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DENHAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to talk about California's 
water crisis. Later this week, we will be debating a bill, the Western 
Water and American Food Security Act of 2015, which was born out of 
many conversations with the Senate and with the administration.
  Over the years, we have discussed how dry California is. Now, we 
can't prevent Mother Nature from creating a

[[Page 11432]]

drought, but we can plan and store water for those dry years. It has 
happened for centuries. The problem is it just hasn't been happening in 
the last several decades in California, which means over 1 million 
acres of farmland will go fallow.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not just a California issue. This is an issue 
that will affect the entire United States food supply. We need to make 
sure we are capturing water.
  While Members want to continue to debate climate change, shouldn't we 
all agree that hydroelectricity, the cleanest electricity out there, is 
good for our environment? The trees that I grow as an almond farmer are 
good for the environment. If you want to reduce carbon, let's plant 
more trees.
  If we want to have safety and security in our communities that have 
forestland, then shouldn't we clear the brush and make sure that we 
don't have a fuel supply again, creating a better environment with a 
healthy forest?
  There are things that we should do to create a healthy California and 
a healthy country. This water bill is one of those solutions.

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