This week, during a House Committee on Natural Resources GOP forum on the ‘Western Water Crisis’, Representative Mike Garcia (CA-25) highlighted the need for action to address California’s drought crisis.
 
The discussion followed a letter Garcia sent with fellow California House Republicans in April urging the Committee act on the drought. The forum provided an opportunity for Members of Congress to discuss best practices to addressing the drought in California and other parts of the West.  
 
“Our state is one of the few states that is not energy independent, despite sitting on some of the largest natural resources for energy,” said Garcia. “We have some of the worst fires in the nation, and we have politicians in Sacramento and those representing the state at the federal level blaming climate change rather than investing in forest management.”
 
During the hearing, Garcia emphasized the need for sensible improvements relative to water infrastructure in California.
 
“We complain of infrastructure woes and not having enough money despite being the highest taxed state in the union, yet we spend 100 billion dollars on things like high-speed rail rather than improving our infrastructure relative to water storage and capacity in delivering,” said Garcia. “This is all depressing, but the reality is that the solutions are right in front of us, we actually know what to do.” 
 
Garcia noted that there are potential solutions ready to be implemented. One of the solutions he highlighted was legislation he introduced earlier in the year that would extend the bipartisan California water provisions from the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act.
 
“My [bill is] another [7] year extension of [provisions in] the WIIN Act and hopefully we can turn enough lightbulbs on across the aisle to help them realize that the extension of the WIIN Act is for California, but it’s also for the entire country,” said Garcia.
 
Watch Rep. Garcia’s full remarks here.
 
Click here to learn more about Garcia’s legislation to improve California’s water storage