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we agree there are things that need to be addressed, but let us not 

 pretend that this bill — this bill is very reminiscent of what hap- 

 pened when we passed CVPIA. 



We invited everybody to negotiate, and everybodv was 

 negotiative. Things were going along fine, and then one day the 

 Central Valley water user people simply pulled their people out of 

 the room. They forbid their representatives and others to go into 

 rooms and negotiations. 



There have been negotiations now over the last year and a half, 

 and all of a sudden apparently the Central Valley water user peo- 

 ple got tired of those negotiations because other people are de- 

 manding items for environmental and for big urban economic inter- 

 ests that are dependent upon the same kind of stability you talked 

 about for agriculture. 



Homebuilders, commercial development, new jobs, new industry 

 have to have a source of water in our state. So now we have a bill 

 that represents the Central Valley interests, but let us understand 

 that is what it represents. That doesn't mean it can't be changed. 

 That doesn't mean it can't be improved. That doesn't mean there 

 aren't some things in it that are right. 



But it also has some provisions in it that are absolutely incon- 

 sistent with the intent and the purposes and the consensus that 

 was formed around the CVPIA; the long-term contracts, the water 

 marketing changes, the funding of restoration, the preservation of 

 wetlands, all of which have huge constituencies in our state at- 

 tached to them. 



And as people have already admitted, much of this can be 

 worked out, and we will hear administratively. Well, why don't we 

 get a consensus on what can be done administratively and reduce 

 the things that need to be done statutorily and then work on those? 

 But that is not what this process represents. 



The healthiest thing about this I guess is it is going to allow an 

 airing of all of these views. But to suggest that somehow there is 

 a consensus in the state to overturn CVPIA is simply dead wrong, 

 whether it is the business community, the big business community, 

 or the small business community, or the millions of people who live 

 in urban and suburban areas, and those who share in the recre- 

 ation uses of the delta or the other water uses in the state. 



So this may be the beginning, but it is the beginning of a very, 

 very long journey to try to reach consensus. And right now, in fact, 

 what we have had is we are forcing consensus at a whole lot of lev- 

 els where people never thought it was going to be possible. And to 

 come in now and to interrupt that process to me is the most de- 

 structive thing you can do, and that is why Standard and Poor's 

 and other people have said what has happened so far is improve 

 the economic standing of the State of California which has a lot of 

 other problems. 



And it is due in no small part to the kind of time and effort that 

 the Senator from New Jersey lent because the biggest problem 

 would have been getting somebody's attention in the Senate. You 

 will find this out, your biggest problem will be getting somebody's 

 attention from some other state to take care of your problem as you 

 see it. That will be the biggest problem you will ever have in the 

 U.S. Senate. And to get this kind of time, this kind of study, this 



