(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Despite Veto Threat, House Passes Spending Bill Terminating CVPIA Environmental Restoration Program [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-10-30  

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives just passed an odious spending bill, H.R. 4821, that terminates the environmental restoration provisions of the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) that made fish and wildlife a purpose of the Central Valley Project for the first time in history.

“Within hours of taking up the gavel, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Michael Johnson, brought it down on a bill that would gut California’s fisheries and wipe out a thirty-year old program to repair environmental damage caused by the massive Central Valley Project,” the Hoopa Valley Tribe on the Trinity River wrote in a press statement responding to the bill's passage.

Buried in the 100-page bill are eight lines written by Representative David Valadao (R-CA-22) and co-sponsored by eleven other California Republicans, including Speaker Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-20), the Tribe reported.

They order the Secretary of the Interior to “deem complete the fish, wildlife, and habitat mitigation and restoration actions” required by the 1992 Central Valley Project Improvement Act (PL-102-575 Title XXXIV) signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.

The bill mandated the restoration of anadromous fish populations, including fall, winter, spring and late fall-run Chinook salmon, coho salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, lamprey eel, and others, to historical levels by 2002.

Instead, Central Valley and Trinity River fish populations have have been driven by closer and closer to extinction by the state and federal governments, largely due to the massive pumping of subsidized water to corporate agribusiness interests in the San Joaquin Valley, including the Westlands Water District and Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners of the Wonderful Company, for decades.

“This bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to lie to the Nation,” said Hoopa Valley Tribal Chairman Joe Davis. “Our fishery isn’t restored; it hangs in the balance. Sponsors of this legislation know that.”

This year’s harvest allocation of Klamath-Trinity River fall chinook salmon was 374 fish for nearly 3,600 HVT members; and at least one species, coho salmon, is listed under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).

“The Central Valley Project devastated the Trinity River fishery that has been important to the survival of our people since time immemorial,” said Vice Chairman Everett Colegrove.

“These lawmakers -- and the Central Valley agri-business corporations that support them -- would leave us a few hundred fish annually; that cannot possibly support the Hupa people,” stated Hupa Fisheries Director Michael Orcutt.

“This bill is a moral outrage. It betrays laws and policies established to protect the Hupa people and the well-being of all Californians,” added Hoopa Valley Tribal Council Member Isaac Bussell.

“On October 3, the Biden Administration told Congress that the President would veto this legislation if it reached his desk,” said Hoopa Valley Tribal Council Member Daniel Jordan.

Then today, a letter from the Executive Office of the President reiterated the veto threat: “The Administration opposes House passage of H.R. 4821, making appropriations for the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year (FY) ending September 30, 2024 and for other purposes...If the President were presented with H.R. 4821, he would veto it.”

Chairman Davis concluded, “We take the President at his word; and we will work with California Senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, and our Congressman, Jared Huffman (D-CA-2) to strike this untrue language from the legislation and ensure that our fishery is restored.”

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/30/2202666/-Despite-Veto-Threat-House-Passes-Spending-Bill-Terminating-CVPIA-Environmental-Restoration-Program?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/