<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:14px"><div class="" style="">http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/18/6718833/congress-keeps-california-water.html <br class="" style=""></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; " class=""><span class="" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; border-collapse: separate; "><div id="story_header" class="" style=""><h1 id="story_headline" class="" style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(2, 74, 130); line-height: 1em; font-size: 26px; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">Congress keeps California water talks flowing</h1><h2 id="story_subheadline" style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: rgb(119, 119, 119); line-height: 1em; font-size: 20px; margin-top: 3px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; " class=""></h2><div class="" style="font-size: 11px; margin-top: 8px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 8px; margin-left: 0px; ">By <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/search_results/?sf_pubsys_story_byline=%22Michael%20Doyle%22&link_location=top" title="Read more articles by Michael Doyle" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(2, 74, 130); " class=""><span class="" style="">Michael Doyle</span></a><br class="" style=""><span class="" style=""><span class="" style="">McClatchy Washington Bureau</span></span></div><div class="" style="padding-bottom: 1.5em; "><div class="" title="2014-09-18T16:03:13-0700" style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Published: Thursday, Sep. 18, 2014 - 4:03
pm</div></div></div><div id="articlebody" class="" style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 1.5em; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; "><div id="sinclairbody" class="" style=""><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class=""><span class="" style="">WASHINGTON -- </span>Secret California water bill negotiations have a “55 percent to 60 percent chance” of success during the fast-fading 113th Congress, Democratic <a rel="nofollow" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Sen.+Barbara+Boxer/" class="" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(2, 74, 130); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: initial; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">Sen. Barbara Boxer</a> said Thursday.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; "
class="">In her first extended public comments on the closely held water talks, Boxer voiced cautious optimism even as she criticized House Republicans for trying to exclude Northern California Democrats.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">“I’m very hopeful,” Boxer told reporters. “I would say the discussions are going well.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">Some negotiators convened as recently as Sunday in an effort to narrow remaining differences, Boxer revealed. Like everyone else involved in the ongoing negotiations, she carefully avoided discussing any specifics and declined to identify what the major sticking points might be.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">But with so little time remaining, Boxer could find herself holding the key card in what she described as “pretty good, often intense” negotiations.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">The negotiators are trying to
resolve significant differences between House and Senate bills that respond to California’s drought. The GOP-controlled House passed a far-reaching bill in February. It would roll back a landmark 1992 law that directed more water to protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, remove wild-and-scenic protections from a half mile of the Merced River and authorize new water storage projects, among other provisions.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">The Senate countered in May with a slimmed-down bill passed by unanimous consent, also without a committee hearing. Since then, there are muffled suggestions that Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California and House Republicans have moved closer together, while Boxer and the Obama administration have continued to hold concerns about the legislation’s potential impact on the Delta and on protected salmon populations, among other issues.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">“Water
needed for listed salmon runs greatly helps the non-listed runs us humans on the coast and along the <a rel="nofollow" href="http://topics.sacbee.com/Sacramento+River/" class="" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(2, 74, 130); border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: dotted; border-bottom-color: initial; cursor: pointer; display: inline; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; ">Sacramento River</a> depend on,” John McManus, executive director of the Golden Gate Salmon Association, said in an e-mail last week.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">Democrats who voted against the 68-page House bill, and whose congressional districts span part of the Delta, complain that they have been shut out of the subsequent negotiations. Republicans say the Democrats are never going to vote for
the final bill anyway; an argument Boxer does not share.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">“I think it’s foolish,” Boxer said of the exclusion. “A recipe for success is everyone sitting around a table and being sincere. . . . We have to be respectful of everyone who has a stake.”</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">Boxer’s enhanced role stems, in part, from the congressional calendar and in part from the way the Senate works.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">During August, negotiators indicated that a final package would probably have to be wrapped up in September. But September suddenly became shorter when congressional leaders this week declared that both chambers of Congress will effectively depart Friday and not return until Nov. 12.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">This means any final package will have to be completed in a lame-duck, post-election session, where the political
dynamics can get more complicated. The Senate, in particular, could get even more unpredictable than usual if Republicans gain six additional seats that would give them the majority in January.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">Senate rules, moreover, can both help and hinder a bill.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">Boxer noted Thursday that if all differences are ironed out, the final California water bill could be passed by unanimous consent, a lickety-split procedure used in May to move the Senate’s initial 16-page version. The unspoken converse is that, particularly when time is short, individual senators can stop anything.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">“Our goal is to move water where it’s most needed, without doing anyone harm,” Boxer said.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 15px; " class="">Separately, the House Natural Resources Committee on Thursday approved a bill by Rep. Tom McClintock,
R-Calif., to streamline the approval of Bureau of Reclamation water storage projects. Its long-term prospects are unclear.</div><hr class="" style=""><div class="" style="margin-bottom: 15px; "><i class="" style="">Email: <a href="mailto:mdoyle@mclcatchydc.com" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(2, 74, 130); " class="">mdoyle@mcclatchydc.com</a>; Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelDoyle10" target="_blank" style="outline-width: 0px; outline-style: initial; outline-color: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(2, 74, 130); " class="">@MichaelDoyle10</a>.</i></div><div style="width: 1px; height: 1px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font: normal normal normal 10pt/normal sans-serif; text-align: left; text-transform: none; overflow-x: hidden; overflow-y: hidden; " class=""><i class="" style=""><br class="" style="">Read more here:
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