Bid to Alter State’s Water Allocation Loses : Resources: Bill would have prevented U.S. from automatically renewing 40-year service contracts for Central Valley Project users. The defeat leaves drought relief legislation in limbo.

A bold attempt to alter the way the federal government allocates water in California was defeated by the House Monday, leaving emergency drought legislation in limbo as the state braces for a sixth straight year of dry conditions.

The bid by Rep. George Miller (D-Martinez), the chairman of the House Interior Committee, to stop the federal government from automatically renewing 40-year water service contracts for users of the massive Central Valley Project fell 27 votes short of the two-thirds majority required. As a result, passage of a drought relief bill--the House and the Senate had approved separate measures--appeared doomed for the year.

“The chairman played a high-risk game and the people of California lost,” said Steve Goldstein, chief spokesman for the U.S. Department of Interior.

The drought legislation would have given federal authorities new powers to move water where it is needed most during a crisis and allow cities to use federal water projects to store and transfer water. It would permit hard-pressed communities such as Santa Barbara to store water in Lake Cachuma, a federal reservoir, at a savings of $15 million in construction costs.

Miller had sought to attach an amendment to the drought legislation that would have forced the Interior Department to halt its practice of renewing 40-year contracts for delivering irrigation water to Central Valley farmers, a practice he and others in Congress have vigorously opposed. He has argued that California farmers should not continue to be automatically entitled to 80% of the state’s water resources at highly subsidized prices for decades.

Miller sent a clear signal that he does not intend to allow drought legislation to pass without a revised management policy in place for the federal government’s largest water resource project. His proposal Monday would have renewed the water contracts for three years pending renegotiations.

While many may agree with his position on the Central Valley Project, Miller’s maneuvering was widely criticized.

“I think what he is attempting to do is unconscionable and outrageous,” said Sen. John Seymour (R-Calif.). “His 11th-hour, back-room political tactics really are doing nothing more than holding hostage vitally important drought legislation in California. Should we go into a sixth year of drought, the disaster and tragedy that will happen as a result will be laid directly at his feet.”

Seymour helped move the emergency drought bill through the Senate, although it took more than six months after a similar measure was drafted and rushed through the House by Miller.

Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. issued a letter to the House on Monday saying that Miller’s actions would “undoubtedly stand in the way of enactment of actual drought relief legislation, and further delay our taking needed steps to alleviate drought conditions.”

Miller also incurred the wrath of his colleagues for introducing his proposal on the House floor rather than at the committee level as is customary.

Perhaps the most surprising--and stinging--criticism came from Rep. Richard H. Lehman, a fellow California Democrat on the Interior panel who accused Miller of abusing the legislative process.

“We are not going to be blackmailed,” Lehman said. “We will do without. Yes, we would like drought legislation . . . (but) we don’t need this noose.”

In an interview, Miller said he is prepared to do whatever it takes to get the Senate to address water contract reform, an issue he considers far more critical to California’s future than the drought relief measure.

“Because you can’t get (the issue) raised, we drift along drought to drought to drought,” he said. “In 17 years here, one of the things I’ve learned is that (the agriculture interests) negotiate you into the grave. Delay in the absence of change is very profitable to them.”

Miller has been highly critical of the Bush Administration’s decision to automatically renew water contracts under the same conditions that were negotiated 40 years ago. A recent study by the General Accounting Office recommended that Congress place a moratorium on all Central Valley Project contract renewals.

Miller said he was encouraged by the 245-164 voting margin. He vowed to return with another attempt to change the service contracts.

“You can’t just keep letting people belly up to the trough of public subsidies and not have public reform,” he said.

Miller scoffed at suggestions that his personal popularity and authority as Interior chairman had taken a beating.

“That is a trap of this place,” he said. “If you ever catch me (considering) would I personally suffer a loss or not, shoot me!”