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Today, Congressman Devin Nunes reacted to the failure of House leaders to pass the San Joaquin River Settlement legislation, which was contained in Senate Bill 22 - a massive public lands package.

“Today’s action by Congress represents a small victory for our region. However, House Democrat leaders clearly have the votes to pass the bill if they bring it up under normal rules. Instead, they attempted to force the bill through the House using a process normally reserved for bipartisan and non-controversial bills,” said Nunes. “There is nothing bipartisan or noncontroversial about taking water from our region, particularly when so many communities in the San Joaquin Valley are drying up.”

The San Joaquin River Settlement legislation will force the diversion of 250,000 acre feet of surface water in order to accommodate the creation of a new salmon fishery – a fishery experts believe will not succeed. These diversions come at a time when many communities across the valley are already faced with critically low ground water supplies, water quality issues, as well as ongoing legal challenges threatening further losses.

“It is hard to imagine a more flawed approach than the one Congress has taken today. Greed, dishonesty and the vain hope of relief from lawsuits seemed to be the primary motivation for passage of this deal,” said Rep. Nunes.