Speeches

A few months ago, Folsom Lake was almost empty. The drought was the catalyst, but the reason was unnecessary water releases from this Dam and a lack of additional water storage upstream.

Oversight Hearing: Energy Independence - Domestic Opportunities to Reverse California's Growing Dependence on Foreign Oil

The question before the House is whether we are going to continue to ignore the economic consequences of the major actions we take - or start recognizing that incentives matter and that the legislation we pass has profound economic consequences that must be taken into account.

Balancing this budget and ultimately paying down the national debt is a national security imperative; it is an economic imperative; and it is a moral imperative.

Last fall, 800,000 acre feet were drained from the Shasta, Oroville and Folsom reservoirs - nearly emptying Folsom lake completely - knowing full well that the region was in the middle of a potentially catastrophic drought.

Four years ago -- long before the current drought -- the Central Valley suffered from the deliberate diversion of 800,000 acre feet of water promised under the Bay Delta Accord. Instead, it was dumped into the Pacific Ocean for the amusement of the Delta Smelt. This wanton act caused the loss of a quarter-million acres of the most productive farmland in America, it threw thousands of families into unemployment, and it devastated this region. Now, a natural drought has compounded the regulatory drought.

As we begin the annual budget process, we need to stop thinking in terms of Democratic and Republican policies and start thinking in terms of what policies have worked and what policies have not. The successes and failures of both parties could teach us much.

Two weeks ago, President Obama visited the drought-stricken Central Valley of California. He announced his administration's response: he wants to spend another billion dollars to study climate change.