In one of the first rejections of a new bill this year, a Senate committee struck down a Republican proposal to establish a water storage and conveyance fund.
Two moderate Democrats had joined as co-authors and another voted in favor of the bill. But the majority of lawmakers sided with arguments from the Natural Resources Defense Council that the measure was too focused on building the Sites Reservoir project, a proposal that still awaits a thorough environmental review.
Proponents argued the bill would not allocate any new funding and was designed to open up a broader conversation about infrastructure spending to better prepare California for drought.
Neither of the authors, Senators Andreas Borgeas of the San Joaquin Valley and Jim Nielsen of the Sacramento Valley, will be seeking reelection this fall.
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Borgeas chose to step down after fellow Republican Sen. Shannon Grove of Bakersfield announced she would run in a new seat that overlaps with Borgeas’ current district. Nielsen, perhaps the longest serving legislator currently in the Capitol, will term out of office this year.
The committee did pass a measure that would revise regulations for hunting wild pigs, despite opposition from several farming and ranching groups. The author, who has a long track record of partnering with agriculture, vowed to work with those groups to ease their concerns.
