Boxer slams water bill rider backed by Feinstein
San Francisco Chronicle / 12-5-16
WASHINGTON — Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, teamed up Monday to slip a legislative rider into a giant end-of-year water infrastructure bill that would override endangered species protections for native California fish for the purpose of sending water to San Joaquin Valley farmers.
Retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., angrily denounced the rider as a “poison pill,” calling a late-afternoon news conference, during which she lashed out against McCarthy, saying he lied by calling the more than 80-page provision a “little, small agreement.”
“This is so wrong it is shocking,” Boxer said of the provision, saying it would authorize water pumping from the state’s rivers beyond what is allowed under the biological opinions for fish protection. She said the legislation also would transfer from Congress to the incoming Trump administration the power to approve big dam projects in the West.
Boxer vowed to use every tool at her disposal to block the legislation.
FULL STORY: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Boxer-slams-water-bill-rider-backed-by-Feinstein-10699564.php
The article says Feinstein's office replied that the legislation does not violate the Endangered Species Act because it contains a "savings clause" that dictates that nothing in the provision shall violate the act.
House Democratic aides counter that courts have ruled direct instructions from Congress (in this case on how much water can be pumped from rivers) always supersede more general clauses declaring that nothing in the legislation violate bedrock environmental law.
According to the article, Boxer promised to filibuster every piece of legislation pending in the senate, including her own! I am so going to miss her. So will delta smelt, salmon and several other native fish.
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