00:00I know I'm offending some of you, maybe a lot of you, but I've been kind of
00:05offended by their assessment of your hard work and the facts on the ground
00:11because there is some suggestion that this was the way we solve all the
00:14problems. There was some imaginary, still is around, I spent 90 minutes with them
00:18in the Oval Office literally talking about this. I should have brought this
00:21slide. But 2025 and 2026 marked a different relationship, you know, and what
00:32it really looks like is this. You know, I revere and a lot of you work for the Bureau
00:42of Reclamation. I appreciate it. I talked about the partnerships with NOAA, you
00:47know, truth and trust, objective facts. A lot of good people are no longer working.
00:54You know, we're shutting things down at a time when we need to be stepping things
00:58up, you know. And I don't mean to malign, and this is not an individual thing, but
01:04here are the nude waters of ours in California. They were introduced to us,
01:11you know, I don't need to be crass, but they may have, you know, I don't, graduated from
01:18Hustlers University or something, you know, the manosphere. But this is serious
01:23business. And most of 2025 was marked by this. If you recall, we can talk about
01:31records of decision, we can talk about biops, get in all those things, back and
01:35forth. Again, I went back and forth to Washington, D.C., meeting with the President,
01:39personally on this, behind the Resolute desk, as he's showing me photos, showing
01:47me this map, which, by the way, does not include water going to Southern California.
01:52And I was reminding him that his own map doesn't even show that it's possible. I'm
02:01done with the politics. But it marks so much of where we are in 2025. So let me talk just
02:09very briefly and close up. 2025, a lot of wonderful things happen. But 2026, I think
02:18even more wonderful things are happening, despite some of the headwinds in the white
02:22waters and some of the challenges that we face. You know, the Salton Sea, I was just
02:27down there, first Conservancy that we've established in 15 years, 9,400 acres being
02:31actively invested in. $500 million has been invested down there. Community finally saying,
02:39all right, maybe you are starting to pay attention. In 2025, we laid out that salmon strategy, 21
02:45new hatchery investments. We finally reintroduced Chinook salmon down in McLeod. We're making
02:51real progress on issues around pulsing and cold water. And, you know, finally put out a strategy,
02:57making the case for the salmon. We talked about the case that was made, that was realized
03:02at the Klamath. Finally, again, continue to move forward with the Delta, including the Delta
03:08Stewardship Council and their record certification just a week or so ago progress in this space
03:15on Prop 1, 1938 projects. 20 programmatic areas. Strike teams in our office. Sites move forward 148
03:30days. Not the full 270 as it relates to judicial strategy. Other projects moving forward below
03:39and above ground. Real progress. More transparency. And over the course of the last seven years,
03:48$11 billion has been invested in water infrastructure. 6.5 from the general fund. That's often forgotten
03:59or overlooked. And, of course, investments in the bond. More streamlining. More work to do. And I'll conclude
04:09with that. As we move forward, we have to finish the job. We've got to maintain the vigilance on these
04:19voluntary agreements. At peril, we go back to our old ways. We've got to do the groundbreaking at sites.
04:27If you can't agree to an off-stream investment. In this world of weather whiplash, we're as dumb as we
04:39want to be.
04:41The Delta, if we had had it last year alone, the Delta conveyance, if we had it last year alone,
04:49would have provided
04:50enough water in terms of what we could have captured with an updated system. Enough water for 9.8 million
05:01Californians need for over a year. Just last year, we could have captured that if we had the Delta conveyance.
05:07We've got to get that done. And we've got to finish the job as it relates to all of these
05:16folks that are still struggling.
05:18Hundreds of thousands of people desperate for access to safe, clean drinking water. Nothing made me more proud on this
05:26journey.
05:26And I will finish. And being out there with a number of representatives, maybe a few of you in the
05:34backyard of
05:34Carlos Sanchez in East Orosi, where I signed a number of bills, a community of 120 people, maybe 160.
05:46Sewage system didn't work. Promises were made for decades and decades. And the emotion being up there in her backyard,
05:54as we made commitment. And just a week or two ago on Earth Day, they finally broke ground on a
06:02water system
06:03that will connect all the households in that community. That's following through on our commitments.
06:10And that's the baton that will be passed, yes, to the next legislature, certainly the next governor.
06:17But that's the weight all of you continue to carry. And so this is a long way of just saying,
06:24what I could have said. Thank you.
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