Congress leaves town today for its 4th of July recess without any agreement on California drought legislation. But that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been a water fight behind the scenes.
House members from the Central Valley met with both California senators to discuss merging two separate drought bills — one passed in the House and the other in the Senate.
Lawmakers and staff agreed to keep mum about details of this latest meeting, but Tulare Republican Devin Nunes says they “laid out the principles, trying to move forward, trying to come to some agreement.”
Traditionally, House and Senate leaders appoint members to a conference committee to meet to work out a compromise. That hasn’t happened. In fact, the Senate bill authored by Dianne Feinstein and co-sponsored by Barbara Boxer, passed by unanimous consent without a hearing.
Negotiations between the House and Senate have continued behind closed doors. Nunes says, “someone’s gotta make some tough decisions here or people are going to run out of water.”
The secret nature of negotiations got the ire of minority House Democrats from Northern California who complain they’ve been left out of the discussion on a topic vital to their districts.
http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/06/26/44993/flood-of-back-room-activity-on-drought-legislation/