President #Obama #Speaks on #California #Drought
President Obama Speaks on Response to the California Drought President Obama delivers a statement about the ongoing response effort to the historic California drought.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I want to thank Joe and Maria Del Bosque and their beautiful daughters for showing Governor Brown and me around their farm.
Joe has got an incredible story. The son of a migrant farm worker, farm work is how he put himself through college. He's been a farmer for most of his life. He started by going around to other folks' land and saying, I'll grow some cantaloupes for you as long as you pay me for what we produce, and over the years was able to develop this amazing business and not only start growing cantaloupes, but almonds and cherries and all kinds of other good stuff.
"There are three things that make farming work in California," according to Joe, "soil, water, and people." And in the little free time they have, Joe and Maria work to improve the health and safety of farm workers. There are a lot of people who are dependent on him year-round, and a lot of people who work seasonally with Joe and Maria, and their livelihoods depend on the functioning of these farms.
But today, we're here to talk about the resource that's keeping more and more California's farmers and families up at night, and that is water -- or the lack of it.
As anybody in this state could tell you, California's living through some of its driest years in a century. Right now, almost 99 percent of California is drier than normal -- and the winter snowpack that provides much of your water far into the summer is much smaller than normal. And we could see that as we were flying in -- Jim and Barbara and Dianne and I were flying over the mountain ranges and could see, even though there was a little bit of snow that just came in the last couple of days, that it's nothing like it is normally.
While drought in regions outside the West is expected to be less severe than in other years, California is our biggest economy, California is our biggest agricultural producer, so what happens here matters to every working American, right down to the cost of food that you put on your table.
And that's why, last month, Governor Brown declared a state of emergency, directing state officials to prepare for drought conditions. And together, our administrations launched a coordinated response. Secretary Vilsack, who is here today, declared 27 counties as primary natural disaster areas, making farmers and ranchers eligible for emergency loans. And over the past two weeks, his team at USDA and Mike Connor's team at the Interior Department have released new funds for conservation and irrigation; announced investments to upgrade water infrastructure; and partnered with California to stretch the water supply as much as possible.
Today, I'm want to announce new actions that we can take together to help these hardworking folks.
First, we're accelerating $100 million of funds from the farm bill that I signed last week to help ranchers. For example, if their fields have dried up, this is going to help them feed their livestock.
Second, last week, we announced $20 million to help hard-hit communities, and today, we're announcing up to $15 million more for California and other states that are in extreme drought.
Third, I'm directing the Interior Department to use its existing authorities, where appropriate, to give water contractors flexibility to meet their obligations.
And fourth, I'm directing all federal facilities in California to take immediate steps to curb their water use, including a moratorium on water usage for new, non-essential landscaping projects.
A bipartisan bill written by your outstanding Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, as well as your own outstanding Representative and almond farmer, Jim Costa, includes similar ideas. And I hope that Congress considers the legislation that they have crafted soon, work through some of the concerns that have been expressed -- let's make sure that we're getting some short-term relief to folks, but also long-term certainty for people who are going to be harmed by this drought.
These actions will help, but they're just the first step. We have to be clear: A changing climate means that weather-related disasters like droughts, wildfires, storms, floods are potentially going to be costlier and they're going to be harsher. Droughts have obviously been a part of life out here in the West since before any of us were around and water politics in California have always been complicated, but scientific evidence shows that a changing climate is going to make them more intense.
I created this video with the YouTube Video Editor (http://www.youtube.com/editor)
THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I want to thank Joe and Maria Del Bosque and their beautiful daughters for showing Governor Brown and me around their farm.
Joe has got an incredible story. The son of a migrant farm worker, farm work is how he put himself through college. He's been a farmer for most of his life. He started by going around to other folks' land and saying, I'll grow some cantaloupes for you as long as you pay me for what we produce, and over the years was able to develop this amazing business and not only start growing cantaloupes, but almonds and cherries and all kinds of other good stuff.
"There are three things that make farming work in California," according to Joe, "soil, water, and people." And in the little free time they have, Joe and Maria work to improve the health and safety of farm workers. There are a lot of people who are dependent on him year-round, and a lot of people who work seasonally with Joe and Maria, and their livelihoods depend on the functioning of these farms.
But today, we're here to talk about the resource that's keeping more and more California's farmers and families up at night, and that is water -- or the lack of it.
As anybody in this state could tell you, California's living through some of its driest years in a century. Right now, almost 99 percent of California is drier than normal -- and the winter snowpack that provides much of your water far into the summer is much smaller than normal. And we could see that as we were flying in -- Jim and Barbara and Dianne and I were flying over the mountain ranges and could see, even though there was a little bit of snow that just came in the last couple of days, that it's nothing like it is normally.
While drought in regions outside the West is expected to be less severe than in other years, California is our biggest economy, California is our biggest agricultural producer, so what happens here matters to every working American, right down to the cost of food that you put on your table.
And that's why, last month, Governor Brown declared a state of emergency, directing state officials to prepare for drought conditions. And together, our administrations launched a coordinated response. Secretary Vilsack, who is here today, declared 27 counties as primary natural disaster areas, making farmers and ranchers eligible for emergency loans. And over the past two weeks, his team at USDA and Mike Connor's team at the Interior Department have released new funds for conservation and irrigation; announced investments to upgrade water infrastructure; and partnered with California to stretch the water supply as much as possible.
Today, I'm want to announce new actions that we can take together to help these hardworking folks.
First, we're accelerating $100 million of funds from the farm bill that I signed last week to help ranchers. For example, if their fields have dried up, this is going to help them feed their livestock.
Second, last week, we announced $20 million to help hard-hit communities, and today, we're announcing up to $15 million more for California and other states that are in extreme drought.
Third, I'm directing the Interior Department to use its existing authorities, where appropriate, to give water contractors flexibility to meet their obligations.
And fourth, I'm directing all federal facilities in California to take immediate steps to curb their water use, including a moratorium on water usage for new, non-essential landscaping projects.
A bipartisan bill written by your outstanding Senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, as well as your own outstanding Representative and almond farmer, Jim Costa, includes similar ideas. And I hope that Congress considers the legislation that they have crafted soon, work through some of the concerns that have been expressed -- let's make sure that we're getting some short-term relief to folks, but also long-term certainty for people who are going to be harmed by this drought.
These actions will help, but they're just the first step. We have to be clear: A changing climate means that weather-related disasters like droughts, wildfires, storms, floods are potentially going to be costlier and they're going to be harsher. Droughts have obviously been a part of life out here in the West since before any of us were around and water politics in California have always been complicated, but scientific evidence shows that a changing climate is going to make them more intense.
I created this video with the YouTube Video Editor (http://www.youtube.com/editor)
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