[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 12]
[Senate]
[Pages 16376-16377]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  WRDA

  Mr. FLAKE. Mr. President, I rise today to speak about drought 
legislation that is critical to the State of Arizona.
  As everyone knows, water is a controversial issue in the West. 
Arizona and California have long been at odds on a number of water-
related issues, particularly the Colorado River.
  Since the beginning of this Congress, I have worked to advance 
Arizona's water priorities. That included working with our neighbors 
across the Colorado River to get a Flake-Feinstein amendment included 
in the Energy bill. This amendment, which was adopted on the floor, 
would allow dams to be more efficient and enhance water storage.
  In addition to this amendment, I have introduced the Western Water 
Supply and Planning Enhancement Act in the Energy and Natural Resources 
Committee. I have worked with many of my colleagues on the committee to 
move this western drought bill through regular order, work that 
included attempting to find a way to reconcile this bill with the 
California drought bill in order to advance all of our priorities.
  I am disappointed that instead of continuing with the committee 
process, a California-only deal was airdropped into an unrelated WRDA 
conference report. This was done at the last minute, circumventing 
regular order, and leaving Arizona and other western State priorities 
out to dry.
  Not only does the WRDA conference report disregard the good work the 
Energy and Natural Resources Committee

[[Page 16377]]

has carried out over these past 2 years, but it also fails to address 
western water matters in a holistic way. Let me be clear, important 
Arizona water issues still need to be addressed by Congress, and I will 
continue to fight for these priorities.
  For example, the Colorado River Basin States are very close to 
reaching a groundbreaking agreement to deal with the prolonged drought 
on the river. We will seek legislation to implement this deal early in 
the next Congress.
  Our watersheds are also under great threat from catastrophic 
wildfires. I will continue to push Congress and the Forest Service to 
move ahead to reduce fire risks in Arizona.
  I look forward to continuing my work on these issues and to fighting 
for other water needs in Arizona.

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