California Water News Daily Your Source For Water News in California
As Congress negotiates the omnibus spending bill, legislators are beginning to question the policy riders that are showing up in the bill. Republicans have tried to remove Democrats’ policy riders that would protect the EPA’s Endangered Species Act. Republicans argue that the Endangered Species Act puts fish before people.
On Thursday, a drought bill was proposed as an addition to the omnibus spending bill under Senator Dianne Feinstein’s name. According to a statement by the senator’s office, she did not propose the bill.
“This is regrettable, not only because I believe we remain close to an agreement on a broader bill, but also because it stands in opposition to my desire to do a bill in an open and public manner,” Feinstein said in a statement. “House and Senate Democrats and Republicans have worked for months on new bill language that would address the differences between bills in both chambers. We have made significant progress toward a compromise bill that would include both long-term investments and short-term operations language to take advantage of El Nino, all in a manner consistent with environmental laws and biological opinions. But significant issues remain.”
According to Feinstein, Governor Brown’s administration, water districts, environmental groups and a number of federal agencies should have input in any drought bill that would impact California.
“At the end of the day, this is about doing the right thing for California. Many communities have gone without running water for months. The state has experienced one of its worst fire seasons in decades. Hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland have been fallowed. We can’t afford to let this effort fail,” Feinstein said.
Negotiations are expected to continue before the December 11th deadline to vote on the bill.
