<html><body><div style="color:#000; background-color:#fff; font-family:times new roman, new york, times, serif;font-size:16px"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 36px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">California water bill sinks for now</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 17px; font-family: Georgia; color: rgb(85, 85, 85); min-height: 20px;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class=""></span><br class="" style=""></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 14px; font-family: Times; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">BY MICHAEL DOYLEMCCLATCHY WASHINGTON BUREAU</span></div><div class="" style="">
</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 12px; font-family: Times; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">11/20/2014 1:16 PM 11/20/2014 1:24 PM</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">WASHINGTON</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Thursday pulled the plug on secret, high-stakes negotiations over a California water bill, saying she and fellow lawmakers will try again next year.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">Feinstein’s unexpected move ends, for now, what had become an increasingly contentious rhetorical battle over ambitious legislation that few had
seen.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">“You’ve got to work with people to get something done,” Feinstein said in a brief interview, adding that “I’m going to put together a first-day bill for the next Congress, and it can go through the regular order.”</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">This year, Feinstein in the Senate and California Republicans in the House pushed water bills through the respective bodies without the usual public mark-up hearings. The discussions that have been ongoing for the past several months have largely excluded House Democrats.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">The closed-door sessions prompted, in recent
days, a flurry of negative editorials that Feinstein said Thursday were based on “misimpressions.”</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">“We’ve come a long way,” said Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, adding that “these type of things happen in negotiations.”</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">Farm leaders have challenged the way state and federal officials divided up the little water that was available in this intense drought.</span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">Responding to farmer unrest, the GOP-controlled House passed a far-reaching bill in February. Drawing largely on a bill previously introduced by Nunes, it rolled back a landmark 1992
law that directed more water to protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The bill also removed wild-and-scenic protections from a half mile of the Merced River and authorized new water storage projects, among other provisions.</span></div><div style="background-color: transparent;" class="">
</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-family: Georgia;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">On Thursday, Nunes said that “we’ll continue to try to work together” when the next Congress convenes in January.</span></div><div class="" style=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class=""><br class="" style=""></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Helvetica; min-height: 16px;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class=""></span><br class="" style=""></div><div style="background-color: transparent;" class="">
</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; font-size: 13px; font-family: Helvetica;" class=""><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px" class="">Read more here: <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article4034561.html#storylink=cpy" class="" style="">http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article4034561.html#storylink=cpy</a></span></div><div style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 16px; font-family: 'times new roman', 'new york', times, serif; background-color: transparent; font-style: normal;" class=""><br class="" style=""></div></div></body></html>