Central Valley congressmen call for openness in water talks

Talks between the Senate and House on legislation responding to the historic California drought should be done in public, not secretly behind closed doors, say Central Valley members of Congress.

In a letter to California Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, and five others say negotiations to date have left the public without adequate information or opportunities for input.

Any compromise between the Senate drought response bill and the House-passed bill, the members argue, would ultimately be harmful to California.

Reps. Jared Huffman, George Miller, John Garamendi, Doris Matsui, Mike Thompson and Mr. McNerney say the House bill, H.R. 3964, severely undermines numerous state and federal statutes, would irreparably damage the Bay-Delta, degrade drinking water quality, and cost California thousands of jobs.

“We are deeply concerned that it appears that negotiations with the House majority are being held out of the public eye. We believe the process by which Congress responds to this drought crisis should be transparent,” the six lawmakers write. “Our constituents are rightly concerned about a closed-door approach that picks winners and losers amid California’s statewide drought, and they deserve a public discussion of the merits of the legislation being considered.”

The members also call for direct assistance to communities hurt by the drought, including farmworker and fishing communities. Neither the Senate nor House-passed bills provide any new funding for emergency drought relief projects, water recycling infrastructure, or conservation and efficiency projects.