Home California Democrats Move to Strike Valadao Drought Bill Provisions in the 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill

Democrats Move to Strike Valadao Drought Bill Provisions in the 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill

by ECT

Washington, DC – Representatives Jerry McNerney (CA-09), John Garamendi (CA-03), and Ted W. Lieu (CA-33) released the following statement about their amendment striking provisions originally from H.R. 2898, introduced by Rep. David Valadao (CA-21), that were attached to the Energy and Water Appropriations Bill:

Congressman Jerry McNerney said, “I am disappointed that this important appropriations bill contains policy provisions that would drain fresh water from the California Delta with over-pumping. These provisions would ravage the ecology of the Delta, destroy the livelihoods of fishermen and farmers across the West Coast, and harm the communities we serve. California needs sustainable solutions like innovative water conservation efforts, infrastructure improvements, and water recycling programs.  We must put the days of choosing one economic sector over another behind us.”

“Today, San Joaquin Valley Republicans showed that they will stop at nothing to gut the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act, and the biological opinions that protect our precious Delta ecosystem,” said Congressman Garamendi. “I look forward to working with Congressman McNerney to do everything possible to make sure that these provisions never become law.”

“I am proud to have cosponsored Rep. McNerney’s amendment to strip the Energy and Water Appropriations bill of its harmful drought rider, and I am disappointed the House of Representatives failed to adopt the amendment.  Attempting to fix California’s drought by adopting dangerous language to harm our fish and undermine the Endangered Species Act is not the answer.  I appreciate Rep. McNerney’s leadership on this issue.” – Rep. Ted W. Lieu

The 2017 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill failed to pass in the House of Representatives by a vote of 112-305.

“I am pleased that, ultimately, the Valadao drought provisions will not be moving forward,” added Congressman McNerney.  “I will continue working with my colleagues to defeat future attempts to pass these harmful provisions or other efforts to weaken the Endangered Species Act or harm the Delta.”

 

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Rep. Jerry McNerney proudly serves the constituents of California’s 9th Congressional District that includes portions of San Joaquin, Contra Costa, and Sacramento Counties. For more information on Rep. McNerney’s work, follow him on Facebook and on Twitter @RepMcNerney.

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2 comments

Jerry May 30, 2016 - 9:25 pm

It’s interesting that Congressman Garamendi blames Republicans for gutting the Endangered Species Act, and the Clean Water Act, This state has been run by Democrats exclusively for years leaving Republicans with little or no power to oppose the twin tunnels or any other measure the Democrats are making to drain the Delta! Shame on you damn politicians, shame on you!

jake leone Jun 2, 2016 - 9:12 am

McNerney supported a huge increase in the number of H-1b visas.

Look most, more than half, of all the generally available H-1b visas are used by Offshore Outsourcing companies, to get better qualified, more experienced U.S. workers (citizens and Green Card holders), to train their H-1b replacement.

When enough such replacements have occurred, the entire department is moved to India.

The Indian government calls the H-1b visa, the “Outsourcing” visa.

What kind of loser, idiotic, strategy is it, to give your principal competition a plane ticket and visa, so that your citizens can be forced to train your principal competition, and use it to move hundreds of thousands of jobs, Offshore.

Look, H-1b is a U.S. Federal Government program, it isn’t even an immigration program. It has nothing to do with immigration, because only a pitiful few of the H-1b visa holders ever go on to become citizens.

H-1b is a lose-lose, thanks to the oversubscription by Offshore Outsourcing companies, that are doing nothing but destroy jobs in the United States.

We don’t need an increase in the number of H-1b visas.

What we need to do is kick the Offshore Outsourcing companies out of the H-1b visa program.

If Offshore Outsourcing companies were barred from the H-1b visa program, we would never have seen a year, since inception, where we ran out of H-1b visas.

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