In Washington D.C., the house of representatives approved the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Emergency Water Delivery Act. It now faces the tall task of passing through the Senate.
Valley Congressman, David Valadao, sponsored the bill. It's designed to lift environmental regulations and allow water to be accessed by valley cities and its farmers. Enabling the delta pumps to be turned on now sets the stage for the summer. Those pumps could then push water runoff from any future rain and snow down through our canals rather than out to sea.
With a long list of California's crops in his hand, Congressman David Valadao took the house floor Wednesday and outlined why it was essential to pass the Emergency Water Delivery Act.
"Anybody that claims to be helpful of those who need our help the most and votes against this bill is saying I want to raise the cost of food to everyone in the United States," said Congressman David Valadao, (R) Hanford.
Representative Mike Thompson fired back saying the problem is not the accessibility of water, but rather it's the absence of water.
"Will this bill help alleviate the drought? No. Even if we pumped as much water as possible, Central Valley farmers still wouldn't have enough," said Congressman Mike Thompson - (D) CA 5th District.
Valley Congressman, Devin Nunes, said that's because of environmental restrictions put in place to protect endangered fish.
"The trick is to take the really wet years, like we had a few years ago, capture the water and hold it. the problem is we didn't capture any water in Friant. We let it go out to the ocean and we didn't turn on the pumps," said Congressman Devin Nunes, (R) Tulare.
"They're doing the right thing in presenting it to the legislature for consideration," said Hon. Oliver Wanger, a former federal judge.
Former Federal Judge, Oliver Wanger, oversaw nearly a hundred cases tied to the Central Valley Project Improvement Act dating back to 1994.
"I often say I have no friends in the central valley based on those cases," said Wanger.
Wanger says enacting a law is the only way of getting this issue out of the courtroom. A place where his hands were tied because he could not impose his opinion.
"All the court can do is call balls and strikes and issue orders to do or not to do something," said Wanger.
The ball is now in the senate's court. When asked about the liklihood of those lawmakers approving it, Wanger had this to say.
"I'm not a betting man . I would be surprised," said Wanger.
The word in Washington is that the senate may introduce its own legislation. They and the house would then possibly look at both bills and try to reach a happy medium.