The White House on Monday stood behind its veto threat against a Republican bill easing water pumping in California amid a brutal drought, not dropping environmental concerns over the GOP plan.
“I don’t have any changes in policy to share with you at this point,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest said when asked whether the California drought would prompt President Obama to reconsider his previous opposition to Republican legislation.
Republicans are expected to again call for legislation that would allow officials to pump more out of California’s San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta. The White House has said that such a move could harm the environment and put various species of fish at risk.
Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown is ordering local water agencies to slash use by 25 percent, as winter snowpack from which the state draws its water is at just at 6 percent of typical levels.
Republicans say Obama is blocking common-sense measures to bolster water infrastructure at a time when improvements are badly needed.
“The environmental movement decades ago began to wage its war on the delivery of California water to the more arid regions of the state, which is also the most productive agricultural land in the country,” House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., previously told the Washington Examiner. “Fast-forward to today, and the influence of these environmentalists has penetrated the White House.”
