Senator Feinstein introduces drought legislation in the Senate

On Wednesday, Senator Dianne Feinstein introduced her revised drought legislation in the United States Senate. The revised bill is being hailed as a compromise Feinstein has long been pushing for.

According to Feinstein, she felt obligated to introduce some sort of drought relief legislation, primarily because she represents California as a whole.

“This bill won’t be everything for everyone—candidly, that’s not possible with California water policy. But I believe the bill strikes the right balance. It invests $1.3 billion in defined long-term projects while making targeted, temporary changes to water operations that only last for the length of the drought or two years, whichever is longer, and which do not violate environmental laws,” Feinstein said in a release.

In order to compose a balanced bill, Feinstein took recommendations from the following government agencies:

· Department of the Interior

· Department of Commerce

· Bureau of Reclamation

· U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

· U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

· NOAA Fisheries

· White House Council on Environmental Quality

· California Natural Resources Agency

· California Department of Water Resources

· California Department of Fish and Wildlife

· Governor Jerry Brown’s Office

“The Senators legislation focuses on desalination, recycling, and protecting the Endangered Species Act (ESA). While these are admirable goals in areas such as San Francisco, this legislation will not provide those suffering from the drought with the water supply they so desperately need,” said Congressman David Valadao (R-Hanford). “With millions of gallons of water flowing out into the ocean every day, failing to increase water flows to the Central Valley is simply unacceptable. While Senator Feinstein’s legislation fails to provide real water to my constituents, I hope she is able to secure passage of the legislation in the Senate so that the two chambers may go to conference and reconcile the differences between both bills.”

Feinstein’s 184-page proposal is her third attempt in the last two years to provide Californians with a drought relief bill.