Repukes using farm bill to suck California's Delta dry

[KamaAina]

http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2014/01/27/republican-raise-stakes-in-california-drought/

Backed by House Speaker John Boehner, three California Republicans said Monday they had inserted a provision into the giant farm bill that would divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farms in the Central Valley, vastly raising the stakes in the struggle between fish and farms amid California’s severe drought.

Reps. David Valadao of Hanford (Kings County), Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, and Devin Nunes of Tulare announced only last week that they were considering legislation, still not public, that would “turn on the pumps” in the delta and halt the restoration of the San Joaquin River this year and next “in order to stop wasting water.”...

The river restoration is intended to save salmon and other fish that have been decimated by past water diversions and are suffering in the current drought. Past closures of salmon fisheries have wreaked economic havoc in the coastal fishing industry.

The Republicans are essentially inserting a policy rider, or earmark, into must-pass legislation. The rider, which has not been considered by any congressional committee and is not even public, would overturn major water decisions hashed out by courts and lawmakers over many years.