House budget bill has lots for California

California lawmakers used their power of the purse this year to kill an Obama administration plan for conserving the state’s sprawling foothills. Capping several years of study and controversy, and facing a funding cutoff, the administration threw in the towel on the proposed California Foothills Legacy Area. The surrender is locked in as part of the $1 trillion omnibus funding bill now set for Senate approval. The bill includes, among a number of other California provisions, language noting that the Fish and Wildlife Service advised lawmakers on Dec. 3 that no further work would proceed on the plan to preserve some of the state’s foothills through the purchase of conservation easements. “The Committees on Appropriations expect the service to adhere to this agreement,” the bill’s authors note. Justin Oldfield, vice president for government relations of the Sacramento-based California Cattlemen’s Association, said in an interview Friday that the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision was “a victory” for ranchers. In addition to dollars, the omnibus package offers rhetorical support for California’s drought-ravaged farmers, advising the Interior Department to “use all of the flexibility and tools available to mitigate the impacts of this drought.” Lawmakers also used the omnibus to rhetorically encourage “a strategy of providing a combination of additional storage, improved conveyance, and increased efficiencies in the uses of water both for agriculture and potable purposes.”...more