President Donald Trump is being credited for the passage of a new provision through the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday that will provide funding to help California to build its first water storage infrastructure in 40 years.
McClatchy reported on Thursday:
The House approved several provisions Thursday that help fund water storage projects. The Senate is expected to concur shortly, and Trump is expected to sign the legislation into law next week.
Republican Rep. Jeff Denham and Democrat Rep. Jim Costa have been pushing for additional water storage for the state for years in constantly-at-risk-of-drought California. Since 1979, California’s population has grown 70 percent.
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Denham’s proposal allows local irrigation districts to apply for low-interest federal loans from the Environmental Protection Agency to build new reservoirs, below ground storage projects, recycling and desalination projects. Those are desperately needed in parts of California to capture rains and runoff from the mountains so water can be stored and used in drier seasons and in years of drought.
The news service noted that both incumbents are somewhat at risk in the 2018 midterm elections — especially Denham, whose district is one of seven in the state that Democrats are targeting because Hillary Clinton won more presidential votes there than Trump in 2016.
But Trump’s election also helped to break the logjam, especially as he has pushed for more infrastructure spending. McClatchy quoted a Republican strategist as saying that Trump had been the most important factor.
In addition, as Breitbart News noted earlier this year, the state allocated funding for the Sites Reservoir, which will store water from the Sacramento River.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. He is also the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, which is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.