Following the House’s passage last week of a water bill targeted specifically at the California drought that has captured national headlines, Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein introduced a legislative counterstrike Tuesday in the form of their own legislation.
Both bills are at different stages of the lawmaking process and vary widely on how best to approach the problem of dried-up California reservoirs and a lack of strong winter storms.
The House-approved legislation would override state and federal environmental laws and cease a restoration plan for the San Joaquin River in order to increase water deliveries to farmers in Madera and around the Central Valley.
The bill’s author, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Visalia), told McClatchy News Services that “people are suffering needlessly” when environmental law — such as protection of the Delta smelt in Northern California — forces water to be flushed into the San Francisco Bay instead of delivered south...