House Proceeding 10-15-09 on Oct 15th, 2009 :: 0:18:35 to 0:20:50
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0:18:31 to 0:18:51( Edit History Discussion )

Jim Costa: water pumps for the central valley. to address the drought, the shortage in the region and the state, we must work collectively toward a solution. maments, i like at this time to yield two minutes to the gentleman from california, mr. costa. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. costa: i thank my colleague.

0:18:35 to 0:20:50( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: Jim Costa

0:18:52 to 0:19:12( Edit History Discussion )

Jim Costa: i rise to oppose h.r. 2442, the rule that we are speaking on. the bay area regional water recycling program expansion act of 2009, while this measure by congressman miller has merit, there are plenty of meritorious water bills that we have repeatedly tried to bring to

0:19:13 to 0:19:33( Edit History Discussion )

Jim Costa: the floor to help those who are experiencing drought and unfortunately they have been ignored. unfortunately yesterday i learned that h.r. 2442 was reported out of the rules committee without a -- with a closed rule. and, therefore, no amendments woulbe allowed. i oppose this rule because we need every opportunity to offer amendments and to vote on legislation that would bring water to our farmers, our farm

0:19:34 to 0:19:54( Edit History Discussion )

Jim Costa: workers, our farm communities and our valley who in middle of this drought -- who drought crisis. towns from endora to delano have 40% unemployment. no water, there's no jobs, no money. for farms and farm workers to put food on their tables. can you imagine what it would

0:19:55 to 0:20:15( Edit History Discussion )

Jim Costa: be like if you lived in a community where a third or more of your citizens he no jobs? in the 1990's i was working with many of those water di environmental groups to pass legislation that would help fix california's broken water system. unfortunately, we made little progress. we tried to establish something

0:20:16 to 0:20:37( Edit History Discussion )

Jim Costa: so we can get healthy again. our valley agriculture provides half the nation's fruits and vegetables and they're withering and dying out. millions of acres of feet of water have been diverted from the valley and unfortunately the fisheries are not improving. it's incumbent upon this body to come together and help us fix this problem. we expect to get healthy again,

0:20:38 to 0:20:51( Edit History Discussion )

Jim Costa: if we're able to dit, we must get water for every part of california. that begins with the san joaquin valley let us start anew. let us start with leadership focusing on california's water