California Water Bill Is Commonsense Solution To Drought-Stricken Communities

Washington, D.C. – Congressmen David Valadao, Kevin McCarthy, and Devin Nunes led the entire California GOP delegation in introducing a comprehensive bill in Congress to resolve the water crisis in California.

The Sacramento–San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act (H.R. 3964) restores water reliability to California communities by codifying the bipartisan Bay-Delta Accord. It also reforms onerous federal laws – such as the Central Valley Project Improvement Act and the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement Act – that have severely curtailed water deliveries and resulted in hundreds of billions of gallons of badly needed water being flushed into the ocean.      

Congressman Kevin McCarthy (CA-23) made the following statement on the introduction of H.R. 3964, the Sacramento–San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act:

“The current California drought is a crisis exacerbated by the failure of government to recognize the damage it can cause when it gets in between our country’s farmers and a critical resource needed to supply food to our nation and economic growth in the Central Valley. The government has decided that rather than follow a law on the books since 1994 that secures adequate water to the Central Valley, protecting a fish is more important.” 

“Today, led by my good friend Rep. David Valadao (CA-21), the entire California Republican delegation in the House introduced legislation put families before fish. In 1994, the Bay Delta Accords between California and the federal government established water deliveries throughout California that have since evaporated due to the protection of one species of fish. This bill ensures that the water pumps that deliver water to the Central Valley and throughout California are operating at the levels agreed upon in 1994.”

“One more day cannot go by without addressing the shortage of a resource so precious to our economy and wellbeing.  Unfortunately, Senate Democrats have yet to even offer a proposal to deliver needed water to the Central Valley. It is time, as representatives for the entire state, that Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein support drought stricken Californians and get behind this legislation.”

You can read the full bill text of H.R. 3964 here and a summary of its provisions here.