(excerpt from Washington Report, September 13, 2002 issue)

Stakeholders to the CALFED Bay-Delta Program came to Washington this month for a series of meetings with members of Congress and the Bush administration to discuss progress on federal legislation to re-authorize the program.

CALFED's Executive Director Patrick Wright, along with ACWA Executive Director Steve Hall, Tim Quinn of the Metropolitan Water District, Ron Davis of the Santa Clara Valley Municipal Water District and Erica Sellers of the Nature Conservancy attended a series of Congressional and administration meetings in hopes of clearing the way for a vote on the House and Senate CALFED bills.

In the House and Senate, CALFED legislation must compete with several other bills for limited floor time this year. In the House, leadership opposition to "Davis-Bacon" language has prevented floor consideration for Rep. Ken Calvert's (R-43) HR 3208. In the Senate, concerns among Western Republicans over the total cost for Senator Dianne Feinstein's S 1768 has prevented floor consideration of the bill.

As of press time, a compromise was rumored to have emerged between Senator Feinstein and western Republicans led by Jon Kyl (R-AZ). The three-year bill would cost $800 million and specifically authorize federal agency participation in CALFED.