As chairman of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and a signatory to a letter from the Legislature opposing HR 1837, Assemblymember Wesley Chesbro (D-North Coast) on June 2 denounced HR 1837, legislation by Representative Devin Nunes to grab more northern California water.
"This is a water grab that threatens salmon recovery and could devastate commercial and recreational fishing in Northern California," said Chesbro. "I'm very concerned that San Joaquin Valley water interests have their eyes on the Trinity River. We need to keep that water in the river to meet public and tribal needs and to improve fish populations."
California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird testified before the Water and Power Subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee regarding House Resolution 1837, an attempt by Congressman Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, to divert more Northern California water to the San Joaquin Valley.
Rep. Napolitano Pushes Back against Radical Republican Water Bill at Hearing
Rep. Grace F. Napolitano also issued a statement on House Subcommittee on Water and Power's hearing on H.R. 1837, the San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act. She said the bill would "usurp California's water laws, roll back California's environmental protections, and alter water distribution to favor certain agricultural users."
"This bill would radically change the way we balance water and the environment in California," said Rep. Grace F. Napolitano, ranking member on the Subcommittee on Water and Power. "New federal rules would override state law, exempting certain agricultural water users from following environmental restrictions or from having to contribute to the health of our natural water sources, as other users do. Creating this special privilege would push the costs of climate change and environmental damage onto all the other water users across the state.
"The new rules would also undercut ongoing negotiations within California, making it difficult or impossible for our state to move forward with necessary improvements for our water supply. The radical changes contained in this bill would ultimately benefit a small group of agricultural users while causing chaos for the rest of California.
"I am also troubled by the exclusionary way this bill is being drafted and pushed forward. This bill's radical changes would affect all of California's water users, including fishermen, Delta farmers, urban communities, and many others, none of whom were invited to appear as witnesses today. It is unacceptable to exclude these Californians while making decisions about their water supply in Washington, D.C."
The Democratic Minority on the Subcommittee has requested an additional hearing to allow for the participation of more stakeholders.
Background on the San Joaquin Valley Water Reliability Act:
• The bill would alter the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, which was created in 1992 after years of negotiations between water users from across California. Since that bill's enactment, agricultural revenues and water exports from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have increased.
• As a federal law, the bill would supersede California's water rights system and would disrupt or make impossible a number of negotiations Californians are currently involved in to improve their water supply, including the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and the 2009 bipartisan water bill passed by the California legislature.
• The bill harms the environment by capping the water contributions that the Central Valley Project makes to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta at 1994 levels, ignoring environmental changes in the Delta and additional endangered species that have become threatened in the intervening 17 years. It waives environmental impact studies for water contracts and extends them for 40 years, ensuring that water agreements will not have to adjust to climate change or their impacts on the environment.
• The bill turns California's water rights system upside-down, overturning decades of legal precedent and sovereignty to give special priority to certain agricultural users on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley. These users would also have lower requirements for contributing water for the protection of the California Bay-Delta Ecosystem, creating a privileged flow of water for use or sale.
Documents:
Letter of opposition from Members of California State Legislature:
"H.R. 1837 undermines judicial agreements, erodes long-standing water law principles, usurps California's sovereignty, and lays waste to any hope of progress in the Delta."
http://napolitano.house.gov/si...
Letter of opposition from a broad coalition of fishing groups:
"There are no words strong enough to describe the complete devastation this bill would bring to the Central Valley salmon runs and those who depend on them for their livelihoods, recreation and food sources."
http://napolitano.house.gov/si...
Letter of opposition from Department of the Interior Secretary Ken Salazar:
"This legislation would undo ongoing broad-based collaborative initiatives that have been underway for many years to solve some of California's most significant water issues."
http://napolitano.house.gov/si...
A new initiative organized by Howie Klein, Jane Hamsher, fellow Calitician Dante Atkins and myself to verbally and financially reward Congressmembers who pledge to vote down any healthcare bill that does not include the public option is catching fire today. The objective is to use carrots as well as sticks to achieve progressive goals. As I said in the diary kicking off this intiative at DailyKos:
Human beings are psychologically predictable creatures, much like Pavlov's famous canine. We do respond well to punishment, but we respond just as well if not better to positive reinforcement. Do nothing but beat a dog with a stick, and the dog is likelier to be aggressive than lovingly loyal. Do nothing but scream at a child, and the child will eventually fail to respond to her abusive parent. Senators and Representatives, no matter how elevated, are still just people: the rules of psychological conditioning still apply. If all we can do is scream at people who don't do what we want, eventually no one will listen to us at all.
If you have the resources, please consider donations to our excellent California legislators. For those who can't chip in, DFA has a thank you action item to thank our healthcare heroes.
With an approach that uses more carrots and less sticks, hopefully we can encourage others in California and across the country to join these brave progressive leaders.
It was a compelling scene: Rep Dennis Cardoza and Rep. Devin Nunes brought in a bowl of 3" long smelt and pictures of unemployed farm workers and their families to a House Natural Resources Committee meeting. They were hoping to provide an effective contrast and convince their colleagues to make an emergency exemption to the Endangered Species Act.
The state is in the third year of a drought and it has gotten so bad that in order to protect a federally endangered species a federal judge in 2007 ordered the state and feds to cut down on the amount of water pumped through the delta to save the smelt.
This is not simply about a species of little fish. The smelt, as Kevin Freking at the AP writes "a bellwether for the health of the delta, the heart of California's water-delivery system." More from the article:
With that, he offered to submit a fishbowl filled with nine minnows for the Congressional Record. The fish were rainbow smelt, not the endangered delta smelt, which are illegal to possess without a permit.
Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Norwalk, responded by asking him to take the plastic wrap off the bowl so the fish could get some air, which Nunes did. Napolitano served as chairwoman for Tuesday's hearing.
I can't just picture that scene in my head. Can't you?
Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, said some of the lawmakers were "cherry picking history" and ignoring that water has been pumped into the valley at rates that exceeded what was appropriate.
That's one of the reasons the judge ordered state and federal wildlife agencies to revise how much water should be pumped out of the delta. Most of the pumping occurs from late spring through summer.
"The judge had no choice because the system was run right down to the margins where in fact he did kick in the protections of the Endangered Species Act," Miller said.
We have lacked a sensible water plan for decades. To allow more pumping risks devastating the entire ecosystem. It is not about just a couple of little fish in a bowl.
The farm workers are devastated right now with the cutbacks to water supplies, but we need long term solutions, not short term actions that cause irreconcilable harm.
Grace Napolitano is a fairly unassuming back-bencher Congresswoman from the Los Angeles area, who generally votes well on most issues. Being in a heavily Democratic district, she hasn't faced much competition from Republicans in election cycles during her decade in Congress, so she's had to find somewhere for campaign contributions to go. Like her pocket:
During a decade in Congress, California Representative Grace Napolitano has pocketed more than $200,000 of political contributions by charging as much as 18 percent interest on money she loaned to her own campaign.
The suburban Los Angeles Democrat made the $150,000 loan in 1998, when she was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. Through Dec. 31, her campaign committee has used donations to pay Napolitano $221,780 of interest while reducing the principal by just $64,727, a review of her Federal Election Commission filings shows.
As recently as June 2008, Napolitano held a fundraiser asking supporters and political action committees for money to pay down the 1998 debt. Napolitano, her spokesman and her campaign's lawyers didn't respond to requests for comment [...]
For Napolitano, a 72-year-old grandmother of 14, the campaign IOU has been a profitable asset, far outperforming stocks since the loan started accruing interest in May 1998. Over the same period, an investment in the Standard & Poor's 500 stocks, with reinvested dividends, would have lost more than 7 percent, according to Bloomberg data.
A case could be made that if you're silly enough to contribute to Grace Napolitano in a D+20 district, you deserve to be fleeced. But of course, the great majority of her contributors are corporate clients that are funneling personal contributions to her through interest payments on her initial loan. It's really shocking, particularly considering that she represents a district with a 16% poverty rate.
Napolitano is a solid vote but we can expect much better than this from our public officials. Politics should never be an avenue for self-aggrandizement.
Woohoo! Jerry did it! Jerry McNerney has managed to become the most un-progressive Democrat of the entire California congressional delegation. For those keeping score at home, Jerry's 82.45 was about a half point lower than the next CA Dem, Jim Costa, that progressive stalwart, at 82.97. And for all the talk of Harman changing her ways, she's still worse than even Joe Baca, almost 7 points worse from a very safe Dem seat.
For all of you CA-45 fans, "moderate" Mary Bono came in with a stellar 4.42 Chips are Down score. So, for all the bluster of the SCHIP vote, she's still dancing the same jig as the rest of her party.
On thing must be said, the Speaker has done an excellent job at preserving unity amongst the caucus. Whether that means she's being too incremental and/or ineffective, or just laying down the law is the big question. The reason her approval rating, and the Congress in general, is down has a whole lot to do with the fact that little has changed on the Iraq front. So, would it be better to have a speaker who is more willing to take risks? Perhaps, but the impediment of the president always lingers over her head, veto pen in hand. So, whether the unity is really there, is an open question. Full data over the flip.
(I was working on a similar post, but I'll still post my own, with all CA data and some other miscellany. - promoted by Brian Leubitz)
The problem with most scorecards is that they are written by lobbyists concerned with always getting the votes of potential supporters. Thus, there is an equal weighting while in the real world not all votes are equal. In fact, regardless of everything else, some votes are dealbreakers and when they show up on scorecards as one of 12 votes or something, it looks silly. However, Progressive Punch has a new "when the chips are down" scorecard. After the flip is the ratings of CA's congressional delegation, in descending order.
I'm guessing that at tonight's Calitics' Actblue Celebrations there will be a lot of discussion about the votes to condemn MoveOn. The CA delegation split 50-50 in the senate and 16 yea and 17 nay in the house -- wedged successfully by the GOP in half. After the flip is the scorecard.
...who just signed on to a letter to the President vowing not to appropriate any more money to the Iraq debacle for anything other than a fully funded withdrawal. Kudos to these 12:
Lynn Woolsey
Barbara Lee
Maxine Waters
Ellen Tauscher
Diane Watson
Bob Filner
Hilda Solis
Grace Napolitano
Linda Sanchez
Mike Honda
Pete Stark
Lois Capps
