19 



nately, there was not enough attention paid to the needs of agri- 

 culture in this bill, and that is simply what these reforms do. Mr. 

 Miller, nobody wants to gut this bill. Nobody wants to trash the 

 Bay-Delta agreement. Nobody including farmers in the San Joa- 

 quin Valley want to destroy that. 



Now, I couldn't have said this probably 30 years ago when envi- 

 ronmentalists would raise issues and farmers would say, frankly, 

 "Go to hell," because they didn't have to listen to you. But the envi- 

 ronmental movement has done good things over the last 20 years 

 to raise the consciousness of those that are using the environment 

 or resources in order to make a living. 



But that doesn't apply today. We want to do the good thing. This 

 bill, CVPIA 1992, threatens agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley, 

 and what we are tr3dng to do is make adjustments to the bill so 

 that people can live and farm in the San Joaquin Valley, and that 

 is all I have got to say. 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. Thank you. Mr. Dooley is recognized. 



Mr. Dooley. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am not a fisheries biol- 

 ogist by any means, but I find it almost humorous with the com- 

 ments by Mr. Farr and Senator Bradley, who are attributing the 

 record salmon catches this year to the reform of the CVPIA that 

 was passed two years ago. It is my understanding that you don't 

 catch a salmon until about five years after it is spawned in the 

 river, and so perhaps this is almost a recognition that maybe we 

 weren't doing things all that poorly before the CVPIA was put in 

 place. 



Mr. DOOLITTLE. Maybe we should just give Mother Nature some 

 credit for a good, wet year. 



Senator Bradley. It is a little bit like the confidence that Con- 

 gressman Thomas said was restored when the Congress changed. 



Mr. Dooley. Yes. That is right. 



Senator BRADLEY. The contracts weren't bankable, but when 

 Congress changed 



Mr. Dooley. Right. I guess the other thing I would like to just 

 touch on is Mr. Miller's comments that the legislation represented 

 a consensus. Many of us would contend that was somewhat of an 

 overstatement, but what we are looking at in the Central Valley 

 Project Reform Act today is trying to find a consensus in terms of 

 what are the appropriate reforms to make in the legislation that 

 passed a couple of years ago. 



And I guess the characterization that this bill is being brought 

 to the Congress by sinister forces almost, well, I certainly take ex- 

 ception to that. I think Mr. Fazio and Mr. Doolittle do too, and 

 what I think we are trying to do is to find a way to address some 

 of the inadequacies in the bill. 



We are going to hear testimony from not only ag contractors but 

 from urban contractors and even from the Bureau of Reclamation. 

 All are going to identify provisions in the 1992 law that need to be 

 addressed. Some of them are going to argue that they ought to be 

 addressed administratively, and some are going to argue that they 

 need to be addressed legislatively. But in every instance, the one 

 thing that you cannot escape is that various interests are acknowl- 

 edging that there is a need for some changes. 



