Floor Statements

Thank you, Chairman Rahall and Ranking Member Hastings.

You have heard about the three bills. We are here today on these three pieces of legislation that would settle the water rights of six Native American nations in New Mexico and Arizona. The people on these reservations inhabit the same sacred lands as their fathers, their grandfathers, and many generations before. These three bills would provide them with the water that their ancestors were entitled to but never received.

We often take for granted the most basic of our resources, water. The people of the pueblos and the high country of Arizona never have. They understand the value of water and its importance in their cultures and well-being. Water is the lifeblood of these individuals, and when they were assigned reservations of land, their assumption was that they would also have access to the water they needed to survive. They were not, and hence for the last 140-plus years, these individual Americans have been fighting for the right to this most basic of resources, water. It is time today for us to do something about this for these six native nations.

Mr. Chairman, you mentioned Charlie Dorame in your statement as an example of the type of dedication that has been made for these water rights settlements and the subsequent legislation. Leaders in each tribe and pueblo have invested many decades in trying to acquire water rights that for generations came without legal restrictions but instead were part of their homeland.

For many years these tribes have been treated as second-class citizens of our great country, America. We have taken their lands. We have taken their resources, and we have even taken their water. But instead of complaining, these pueblos and tribes have worked with the Federal Government and the local governments to legally, and I might add very costly, attempt to acquire access to something that always has been part of their lives, water.

Members of these tribes across the country today continue to work to support their sovereign nations. They work with the States and work with the local partners who see the benefit of the settlement not just for the tribal communities but for the entire region.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to say that I have Colorado River Water Users Association's 2010 resolutions, the Western States Water Council, and the National Congress of American Indians here in support of this legislation, people looking for local and regional solutions, just as we have been directing them to do.

Mr. Speaker, I have brought with me these resolutions so we can understand that they have wide support, not only from the Native American areas but also from their neighbors and their friends within the area. Each of these organizations supports the settlement of Indian reserved water rights by negotiation or agreement. They realize in order to plan for the future and for their economy, we need to provide certainty to a basic human right, water.

These resolutions are consistent with the administration's views of supporting collaborative negotiations as an inherent responsibility to Federal trustees to Indian tribes and their members. Most importantly, we can not, we must not forget that we are talking about Americans, Native Americans, human beings. These tribes and pueblos have done everything that we have asked of them and have taken the long walk to walk with the Federal Government's legal restraints and now are in sight of securing for their people a basic human right, water.

After decades, these people have made huge efforts to play by the government rules to acquire rightful access to water that traditionally came with the land that they lived on. The price for these people has been high, the walk long and filled with many disappointments and many empty promises.

I ask that you support this legislation today. Support it because these Native Americans have followed all of the rules, procedures, and hurdles that our government has laid out. Support the legislation because it is the right thing to do and because it is supported by all local community and regional water managers; and, most importantly, because it is time to provide

certainty to the tribes and the pueblos and the people of New Mexico and Arizona that we can do right by them. At the end of the day for this one precious resource, water, we can sit down and appreciate doing the right thing for them.

Water, Mr. Speaker, which you are drinking, is running short in the U.S. We need to preserve it and take care of it, and none other more than our Native Americans love the Earth and what Mother Nature gives us. Help us pass this bill.

2010 Resolutions Adopted by the Resolutions Committee of the Colorado River Water Users Association, December 9, 2009

* * * * *

* * * production. The federal government should pay for

replacement power due to operational changes for recreation,

fishery or the environment.

5. Reclamation-constructed and maintained water storage and

conveyance systems situated throughout the Colorado River

Basin are critically important to the economies, the quality

of life and the survival of the people who depend upon waters

from the Basin. In order to avoid huge financial impacts

associated with performing maintenance that was deferred or

making future repairs on an emergency basis, Congress should

recognize and appropriate requisite funding to maintain

aging, critically important water project infrastructure in

the Colorado River Basin and across the West.

6. Reclamation should immediately commence and fully

implement the measures identified in its Managing for

Excellence action plan, issued in response to the National

Research Council's Managing Construction and Infrastructure

in the 21st Century Bureau of Reclamation report, including

transfer of operation and maintenance responsibility to

project sponsors when they are capable and willing to take

over such responsibility.

Resolution No. 2010-4--COLORADO RIVER SALINITY CONTROL

The CRWUA urges continued funding and implementation of

measures to control the salinity of the Colorado River. The

Administration should request and Congress should provide

sufficient funding for the Colorado River Basin Salinity

Control Program.

Resolution No. 2010-5--SETTLEMENT OF INDIAN RESERVED RIGHTS

The CRWUA supports the settlement of Indian reserved water

rights by negotiation or agreement, recognizing that:

1. Settlements should result in the least possible

disruption of existing water uses and the economies based on

those uses, while at the same time providing the affected

tribes with the firm water supplies required to meet the

long-term needs of the reservation inhabitants and to

establish lasting tribal economies.

2. The achievement of these objectives requires federally

funded water projects designed to ensure that all of the

tribal water needs in the subject basin or watershed are met.

3. Appropriate participation of the Federal, State, local

governmental and Tribal entities, and non-Indian water users

in the settlement process is required for the success of any

negotiated settlement.

4. Any water rights settlements that have been approved by

the respective parties should be immediately and fully funded

to implement their terms within the specified timeframes. The

Federal Government must take advantage of existing funding

authorizations, such as Title VI, Emergency Fund for Indian

Safety and Health, of P.L. 110-293, by complying in a timely

manner with Congressional mandates and budgeting funds, while

continuing to explore and develop new creative solutions to

fund Indian water rights settlements.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Thomas J. Graff, who passed away on November 12, 2009, after a courageous battle with cancer. Tom will be remembered as the dynamic force that helped shape the way that the State of California and the Federal Government manage water and protect the environmental resources of the State. Tom worked for and founded the California office of the Environmental Defense Fund in Oakland. His water achievements were based on an ability to work effectively with water users, legislators, conservationists, economists, and the public. He was known for his insightful thinking, writing and ability to translate complex water issues into understandable dialogue that legislators and the public could understand.

The water and environmental communities have lost a valuable champion, a true leader and a good friend. In a world today where hard feelings and rhetoric seem to capture the headlines, Tom worked to find the common ground and opportunities for sound water management. Tom's shoes will never be filled, but we can set a path to continue to follow his philosophy of finding solutions for our complex water issues.

``Along with much of California, I have been informed and inspired by Tom Graff since the mid-1970s,'' said Tim Brick, chairman of the board of directors for Metropolitan Water District, Los Angeles, California. ``Tom truly recognized the value of water and fought to ensure that the environment gets its rightful share. Long before others, he was a beacon in promoting conservation, water transfers and environmental protections as solutions for California's great water systems, the Colorado River, the Central Valley Project, and the State Water Project. The development of policies and programs to ensure a sustainable Bay-Delta will be his greatest legacy.''

We owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Graff, and I wish to express my sincere sympathy to his family as well as the extended family who have endured the loss of their loved one. I ask that all Members join me to honor this icon for his life's work.

Madam Speaker, I rise to recognize the opening of the Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension project into my 38th Congressional District.

This project, which has received $490 million in federal funding, will be a vital transportation link for the communities of East Los Angeles and sometime in the future continue through San Gabriel Valley cities. The project has already begun to spur economic development in this historic Mexican-American section of Southern California.

I congratulate my neighboring colleague, Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard for her great work on behalf of this Eastside Extension. She has led the East Los Angeles County delegation in the fight for federal funding for this project over the years. She has continued a tradition of dedicated service to this community begun many years ago by her father, Edward R. Roybal, and we are honoring him here today by naming the Edward R. Roybal Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension in his memory.

This is only the beginning of bringing this important rail extension project to a working class area. Planning and design for phase 2 of this project continues, as it extends the metro line to the cities of Eastern Los Angeles County. Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority and my colleagues must continue to pursue a full funding grant agreement for this project with the Federal Transit Administration in an effort to provide Metro access to the millions of people living in Eastern Los Angeles County. Major cities have great rail transit and the East Los Angeles community should be no exception!

Madam Speaker, my constituency welcomes the metro service finally connecting East Los Angeles to the greater Los Angeles community. This will go a long way to encourage the citizens of East Los Angeles to continue their push for cityhood and will allow the residents of this area to be involved in critical projects, such as the Eastside Extension, that will impact their neighborhood and way of life.

Madam Speaker and colleagues please join me in congratulating the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority, the Eastern Los Angeles Congressional Delegation, Supervisor Molina, the Review Advisory Committee and the residents of East Los Angeles for their involvement in making this historic moment a reality.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of health care reform that eliminates out-of-pocket costs for osteoporosis screenings.

Thank you, Ms. Matsui.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2442, the Bay Area Regional Water Recycling Program Expansion Act of 2009. The bill has received extensive review and bipartisan approval from the Subcommittee of Water and Power and was reported on a bipartisan basis favorably from the Natural Resources Committee.

I listened to my colleague, as I am also a Californian, I listened to my colleague on the other side, Mr. Diaz-Balart, talk about the billions of dollars. Yes, there is a great need of assistance to the Central Valley, but it's not all the San Joaquin.

The fact that the dam is wanting to be pushed forth, I agree. We need additional storage, but right now you need immediate results and water recycling is one of the tools that you need.

H.R. 2442 provides new water to the Bay Area in California. The recycling projects authorized will provide, as Ms. Matsui pointed out, 2.6 billion gallons of water annually, enough to meet the needs of 24,000 families. Why do we stand against water for other areas? All of us need additional water in California.

Water is life. As we all are very well aware, the drought in California has taken a terrible toll on jobs all over the State, the economy and the environment of the Central Valley in California in particular. At a time when our Nation needs leadership and options to meet our water requirements, H.R. 2442 provides a tool to create more water for the Bay Area and, in the process, reduce the amount of water imported from the Sacramento and delta area.

This bill, and the projects it authorizes, will immediately address California's water crisis through local action and provide economic relief through job creation. It will not solve California's water crisis, as Ms. Matsui pointed out. However, it does provide a valuable and important tool.

It does provide a valuable and important tool to stretch the existing water supply and address the critical water issues of our State. I urge strongly a ``yes'' vote and encourage all Members to support this legislation. Water for our Nation is critical for all of our citizens and we, as legislative leaders, have to provide for solutions.

The gentleman is correct. The water recycling bill for California for Mr. Gallegly was approved by a voice vote by the House last month, and no amendments were asked for and none were included.

Again, the gentleman is correct. So far this year the House has approved five water bills, all for recycling or water reuse for Members of the minority party, and no amendments were offered by the minority or the majority to any of those five bills which, by the way, were Mr. Issa, Mrs. Bono Mack, Mr. Calvert, Mr. Chaffetz, and Mr. Dreier; and they were approved by a voice vote or by substantial majorities.

True, the gentleman is again correct. H.R. 2442 was approved by unanimous consent, and no amendments were offered by the minority or the majority.

Madam Speaker, on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 350 because the leadership had informed me that there would be no additional votes that evening. Had I been informed of this procedural vote, I would have been present and voted ``aye'' on the Motion that the Committee Rise.

I thank the gentlewoman from California.

I certainly am very grateful that this has been put on the agenda, and I'd certainly like to thank Chair Waxman and Ranking Member Barton of the Energy and Commerce Committee for promoting this resolution.

Every year we recognize in the United States May as the National Mental Health Month. Now today with House Resolution 437 we do so with great joy and sometimes with great trepidation. Mental health is an important issue that deserves attention year round. For too long there's been an associated stigma with mental health. You don't want to talk about it. You don't want to hear it. You don't want to see it. But we must continue to work to remove the stigma, the barrier to knowledge, to make more awareness available and increase access to mental health services both to our military and also to our young men and women, whether it's at the schools, at the universities, in the different areas where it's more prevalent. We have found that early detection, intervention and assistance is very key to being able to have productive citizens in this area. Our U.S. Surgeon General has estimated that over 57 million Americans suffer from mental illness, and it affects everybody. It crosses boundaries. It does not rise to gender or political parties. It is affecting everybody. It does not discriminate.

One in five children in the United States has a mental disorder. This is according to the U.S. Surgeon General's report. And fewer than 20 percent of these children receive the mental health services they desperately need.

Seventy to ninety percent of those treated do experience reduction of symptoms. So we know treatment is very effective. We just know that we don't have sufficient funding to allow for that treatment to be made available to everybody that needs it. And based on the Surgeon General's report, suicide is the third leading cause of death of young people ages 10 to 24. We are losing a lot of youngsters who will not have an opportunity to provide us with their knowledge, expertise and support in the future years of America.

Mental illness also disproportionately affects minorities. In 1999, a study done called ``The State of Hispanic Girls in the United States'' said one in three was reported considering suicide in ages 9 to 11. Currently the Hispanic rate for young girls remains the highest. Although it has been lowered somewhat, it still remains the highest percentage in the United States of attempted suicides.

And a new study just recently revealed that fifth-graders who believe they have experienced racial discrimination are at increased risk for depression, attention deficit disorder and other mental health problems. And unfortunately, Hispanics are three times more likely to have those symptoms. And blacks, African Americans, are twice as likely to be affected by these symptoms.

Then we go into our troops, our soldiers, our returning veterans. More than one in five Iraq and Afghanistan veterans will suffer from mental health conditions, whether it is PTSD, depression, even traumatic brain injury. There is increased news coverage on this. It happens every day. We hear and we see the reports about the effect it has on some of our men and women who have gone and served two, three, four and sometimes as many as five deployments. We continue to bring that to the forefront because we owe those servicemen and women the ability to be able to assimilate back into society and help them by delivering mental health services that they will desperately need not 1 month, not 5 months, maybe not years, but maybe somewhere along the line they are going to be able to have somebody help them out.

We must educate ourselves. We must educate our families. We must educate our loved ones what may happen to a returning veteran, how to recognize it and how to refer them for help and assistance in being able to deal with the symptoms that will not enable them to keep a job and be able to be productive citizens. They need to learn the symptoms of post-traumatic stress syndrome.

Families are also impacted, wives, the children, the separation, the long separations of the father or the mother, whatever the case may be, from their parent, the primary care providers and all physicians, nurses, psychologists and psychiatrists must also learn how to be able to recognize PTSD, which is a little bit separate than trauma, to ensure that all these men and women receive the care they need. The most common problem in the military culture, of course, is the fear of how this will impact their military career. And I'm glad to say that some of our military leaders are beginning to recognize that this is an important way to be able to help their men and women in service remain in service and be a part of their troops or their units. And we must continue to bring that forth and be able to assure them that they will not lose their ability to be able to be promoted.

We must train those military leaders and educate them, the doctors, the corpsmen and the nurses on how to treat PTSD and ask the soldiers to identify signs and symptoms of it with mild TBI, traumatic brain injury, to reinforce the collective responsibility

to take care of each other. All of us must work together to ensure our troops, who have given so much, are taken care of. And at home, our economy, as pointed out by my colleague, Mrs. Capps, has caused struggle. So have our minds. The recession has taken a toll on our families. Economic uncertainty is causing stress, anxiety and depression. The worrying about losing their homes or their jobs, worrying about the children and the retirement, if they are going to be able to retire or has their retirement fund gone somewhere.

It affects not only the quality of life but also our U.S. economy. Major depression is the leading cause of disability in the United States. The National Institute of Mental Health reports that serious mental illness costs the Nation at least $139 billion a year in lost earnings alone. So we must continue to have businesses know that including them in the health provision of services will help them be able to cut down on lost productivity in other areas. Again we must remove the stigma. We must remove the barrier to knowledge and bring more awareness and increase mental health services. Again, early detection and intervention and assistance is key.

I encourage all my colleagues to support House Resolution 437 to recognize May as Mental Health Month. We all know of someone who suffers from some kind of debilitating disorder. Even women with breast cancer; knowing that they have an issue with cancer is disabling. We must recognize also scientific facts and findings, increase awareness of services and how it affects the quality of life, the health and well-being of our communities and our economic stability. Let's work together to improve our lives and ask for support of House Resolution 437.

Madam Speaker, on Monday, May 4, 2009, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 229. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to H.R. 230-- Recognizing the historical struggle for independence and freedom of the Mexican people and request the President to issue a proclamation recognizing that struggle and calling upon the people of the United States to observe Cinco de Mayo with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

Madam Speaker, on Monday, May 4, 2009, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 230. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Con. Res. 111--Recognizing Israel's independence as a significant event in providing refuge and a national homeland for the Jewish people and congratulates Israel's people as they celebrate the 61st anniversary of Israel's independence.

Mr. Speaker, the Public Land Management Act includes 30 separate water bills that my subcommittee passed/approved with the Bureau of Reclamation, the USGS and, of course with the 17 Western States on water environment.

It authorizes conservation, water-use efficiencies and title XVI water recycling projects, addressing the aging infrastructure in the United States' 17 Western States, and allowing for the feasibility studies of many of those much needed water projects.

The West, of course, is having an unprecedented drought, and this will help not only to bring up those shovel-ready projects that will bring 500,000 acre-feet of water and thousands of jobs for the reclaimed reuse water and added storage capacity, but this will lessen a lot of the areas' reliance on costly water and unreliable sources.

We urge your vote, and hope that we will be successful in being able to get those shovel-ready projects to develop those jobs.

Madam Speaker, on Thursday, March 19, 2009, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 141 in order to attend an event with the President in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on the motion to table H. Res. 265--Raising a question of privileges of the House.

Madam Speaker, on Thursday, March 19, 2009, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 142 in order to attend an event with the President in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on ordering the previous question to H. Res. 257--Which provides for consideration of motions to suspend the Rules.

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, March 19, 2009, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 143 in order to attend an event with the President in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on the motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 1586-- Additional tax on bonuses received from certain TARP recipients. We must protect taxpayers' money and ensure TARP funds are not being abused by executives. Executives of TARP funded companies should not receive bonuses for the work they have done that has caused us to arrive at our current economic situation.

Madam Speaker, on Thursday, March 19, 2009, I was absent during rollcall vote No. 144 in order to attend an event with the President in my district. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Con. Res. 76--Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding executive and employee bonuses paid by AIG and other companies assisted with taxpayer funds provided under the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) of the Secretary of the Treasury. It is absurd that AIG has received $180 billion in TARP assistance while giving $165 million in bonuses to the very people who have brought us to our current economic state. We cannot allow the executives of these companies to benefit at the taxpayers' expense.