Historic California Water Bill Passes House - Final Vote 246/175
Bipartisan Majority Sends Bill to Senate
Washington,
Feb 29 -
Today, Congressman Devin Nunes announced House passage of H.R. 1837, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act.
“Today’s vote is an enormous victory for the people of California. With House passage, we are halfway through the legislative process and now can look to the Senate for their response. Will our Senators help restore our property rights and end the death grip of radicals over California’s water supply or will we have to look to others in the Senate to lead the charge?” said Rep. Devin Nunes.
More information, including a list of hundreds of organizations and businesses supporting H.R. 1837, can be found at www.nunes.house.gov/water
Video from the debate can be viewed here.
Remarks of Congressman Devin Nunes
H.R. 1837 Floor Debate
(as prepared)
“After 20 years under CVPIA, Congress can conclude one thing: flushing fresh water into the San Francisco Bay is not helping to recover species and people are suffering needlessly.
We are going to hear a lot from the opponents of this bill about science and I want to start right off and make one thing clear.
We are supporting sound science with H.R. 1837 and we are rejecting the junk-science that has long been foisted on the people of California – junk science that the federal court has labeled the unlawful work of zealots.
I think it is important for me to impress upon the House that opponents of H.R. 1837 do not possess scientific high ground as they are all but certain to allege.
Their experts and the activists masquerading as experts who support them have been biased from the beginning and have molded their work to produce the findings that best suit their radical agenda.
We can say with certainty that this agenda has not improved the fish populations. If that were true, we wouldn’t be here today.
The U.S. District Court has thrown out the biological decisions used to justify the horrible regulations that cut off the water supply to families through California.
The court’s decision was a shocking indictment of the kind of government operating in America today when it comes to our environmental laws.
The U.S. District Court judge said “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
He went on to say that government scientists acted like zealots and had attempted to mislead and to deceive the Court into accepting junk science.
These are powerful statements by a federal court and should give anyone who believes in due process, open government and justice cause for concern.
Yet the band marched on without missing a beat and instead of disciplining these scientists the Fish and Wildlife Service gave them awards for outstanding performance under intense pressure.
The arrogant disregard for the public trust didn’t stop there. President Obama’s VETO threat doubles-down on this dishonest smear campaign - accusing House Republicans of doing just the sort of thing his Administration has been found guilty of.
Mr. Speaker, we are not ignoring the latest science in favor of special interests.
We are not the people who are sending zealots into the federal court to lie in defense of junk science.
We are not the people who are rigging regulations to favor a small minority of left-wing interest groups.
The agenda driven junk science governing the Bay-Delta is indefensible and again, as the federal court said, dishonest.
Congress needs to ask, “Who are these people?”
The answers will disturb you.
Dr. Peter Gleick, for example, helped make the case for drying up California farmland and rural communities – including in testimony before Congress.
Peter Gleick is an activist-scientist who just a few weeks ago admitted to impersonating one of his critics and stealing information from a non-profit.
He then mingled that stolen information with a faked memo in an effort to discredit his intellectual critics.
Radicals like Peter Gleick lie and they make it their mission to destroy scientists who don’t agree with their twisted anti-human views.
Meanwhile, they are used by some in this House as an excuse to take people’s water away, to dry up farmland, and to justify human suffering.
People in our nation’s bread basket are standing in food lines to get carrots from China.
And their sacrifices have meant nothing to the environment. We need to do better. We need to vote yes on the Rule and yes on HR 1837.”
