Rep. Calvert Votes for California Drought Bill

Today, Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42) voted along with a majority (245 – 176) of the House of Representatives to pass the Western Water and American Food Security Act, H.R. 2898.

"Californians expect and deserve a reliable and affordable water supply, even during periods of drought," said Rep. Calvert. "While we can't control the drought, the water shortages our state is facing are due to inaction and failed policies. We can avert suffering through improved water management policies, and it is long overdue for the federal government to ensure that our critical water infrastructure is operated using sound science in order to prevent wasting our precious water supply in ways that do not benefit listed species. Furthermore, we must build the water storage facilities that have been authorized, some for over a decade, to ensure that we can use water from wet years during dry years. The bill passed by the House today takes important steps in that direction."

Rep. Calvert is an original cosponsor of Western Water and American Food Security Act. He was the author of the last major Western water law approved by Congress in 2004.

Rep. Calvert delivered floor remarks in support of the Western Water and American Food Security Act and wrote an op-ed focused on the California drought that appeared in today's Press Enterprise.

Highlights of the Western Water and American Food Security Act

(Provided by the House Natural Resources Committee)

Based on previous legislative efforts that were initially developed on a bipartisan and bicameral basis, the Western Water and American Food Security Act addresses the underlying policy failures that are contributing to increasingly severe drought conditions in communities in California and across the Western United States.

• Improving Science and Transparency: Requires federal and state agencies to use the most updated available science in water management decisions and to allow the public to access such data, delivering improved habitat conditions for species without adversely affecting millions of people.

• Expanding Infrastructure: Enacts "one-stop-shop" permitting reforms aimed at building infrastructure to capture more water.

• Expanding Storage: Requires the federal government to expedite and complete consideration of feasibility studies for water storage projects that have been languishing in bureaucratic purgatory for over ten years.

• Regulatory Common Sense: Requires federal agencies to consider other less water-costly alternatives that would benefit the listed species, such as installing temporary barriers to prevent saltwater intrusion or removing non-native predator fish that eat protected species.

• Emergency Drought Response: Provides federal agencies the operational flexibility during times of crises to effectively make and implement operational decisions in real time without unnecessary regulatory hurdles.

• Water Rights Protection: Prevents federal agencies from requiring certain entities to relinquish their water rights to the United States in order to use public lands.

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