For Immediate Release                                                   Contact: Amanda Molk, 202-225-5256
May 15, 2003

NapolitanoConvenes Hearing Regarding CALFED

Today the House Water and Power Subcommittee Chairman Ken Calvert and Ranking Member Grace F. Napolitano (D-CA38) convened a hearing to insist that the Administration produce a CALFED crosscut budget on time.   By law, the budget crosscut was due on April 31, 2003, but the Administration did not release its 60-page CALFED budget crosscut until late Tuesday, May 13.  The budget crosscut indicates exactly how and where the Administration has spent taxpayer dollars on CALFED program components.  “The Administration’s unacceptable delay in producing this budget crosscut is yet another example of its lack of strong support for CALFED,” stated Napolitano.

The Administration has also stated that it only supports certain concepts of the CALFED Record of Decision (ROD), which is supposed to serve as the guidebook for CALFED project proceedings.  “That lukewarm support for CALFED from this Administration is not good enough.  The stakeholders, the agencies, and the Congress have supported the Bay-Delta Program for nearly nine years.  The CALFED ROD is now nearly three years old.  If this program is to succeed in solving California’s water programs and reducing water conflicts in our State, we have to move out of the talking stage, and get things underway.  It is not helpful to learn that our main partner in this effort has only conceptual support for the implementation of this program,” the Congresswoman noted.

Napolitano also emphasized the particular need for CALFED projects to proceed in her district.  “Our communities in Southern California are ready to go.  We can produce the recycled water; we can build the desalting plants we need to reduce our dependence on Northern California, the Bay-Delta, and the Colorado River.  But this Administration won’t help us with these projects.  They have instead made clear their intention to terminate the Title 16 water recycling program, one of the most promising, useful, and popular Federal water programs in the history of our Nation.  Is this Administration planning the same fate for CALFED, hoping the State of California will be there to take on more and more responsibility for funding the CALFED projects?” she questioned?

Chairman Calvert, Ranking Member Napolitano, and the other subcommittee Members will be reviewing the submitted budget crosscut in greater detail.  “I will continue to work with this subcommittee and urge the Administration to proceed efficiently and wholeheartedly with CALFED projects important to my constituents and all Californians,” the Congresswoman concluded.

Representative Grace F. Napolitano, 38th District of California
1609 Longworth Building          Washington, DC 20515          Phone 202-225-5256          Fax 202-225-0027		11627 East Telegraph Road, #100       Santa Fe Springs, CA 90670       Phone 562-801-2134       Fax 562-949-9144
This is an official Web site of the United States House of Representatives.