Press Releases
Washington, D.C. – The House of Representatives today adopted an amendment by Congressman Tom McClintock to forbid federal agencies from buying up scarce water during California's catastrophic drought in order to release it into rivers to meet environmental requirements. The amendment was subsequently adopted today as part of the Fiscal Year 2016 Energy and Water Appropriations Act. The amendment was adopted on a vote of 226 – 9, and final passage of the Appropriations Act on a vote of 230 –7.
Congressman McClintock is very troubled by pulse flows proposed by the Bureau of Reclamation from the New Melones Reservoir for environmental purposes. As the reservoir is only one-quarter full – a dangerously low level for the start of the dry season, these flows threaten to deprive residents of Calaveras County of their drinking water supply. Congressman McClintock discussed the situation with Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Estevan Lopez by telephone and sent a letter to follow-up.
U.S. Representatives Tom McClintock (CA-04) and Jeff Denham (CA-10) released a letter to key regional federal regulators calling on them to revise plans and take actions to prevent water releases that threaten to leave New Melones reservoir dry this coming summer.
Congressman McClintock delivered the following remarks on the House floor regarding the President's veto of the Keystone Pipeline:
Mr. Speaker:
For more than six years, the President has called for taxpayer-funded infrastructure projects. In the first year of his administration, he squandered nearly a trillion dollars on so-called shovel ready projects that he later joked weren't shovel ready at all.
Rep. Tom McClintock, CA-04, today introduced H.R. 979, a bill to honor Marine SSgt Sky Mote, who was killed in Afghanistan on August 10, 2012. The legislation will designate a mountain peak in the John Muir Wilderness, under which the Mote family gathered to camp every year, as "Sky Point." Every member of the California congressional delegation is a co-sponsor of the bill.