WASHINGTON -- Backstage drama has unsettled a congressional hearing on California water scheduled for Fresno.
And the state's troubled water history only underscores increasingly bitter divisions among San Joaquin Valley lawmakers.
"The Democrats only want extreme environmentalists (as witnesses)," Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, said Friday, "and the Valley Democrats have no clout in their own conference."
One of those Democrats, Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno, retorted Friday that Nunes saw only "political opportunism" in the upcoming hearing.
"For Devin Nunes, it's about politics," Costa said. "He doesn't want to cooperate with us to solve the problem."
The House water and power subcommittee hearing started out with black-and-white intentions. Tellingly titled "Creating Jobs by Overcoming Man-Made Drought," the session was supposed to make the case for increased water deliveries.
The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Granite Bay, stressed his priorities at an April 5 hearing, when he denounced environmentalists' "radical and retrograde ideology" and "government-induced shortages."
"We can return abundance as the central objective of our water and power policy," McClintock declared.
Once onstage at Fresno City Hall, the hearing's 10 scheduled witnesses would likewise articulate familiar viewpoints. Witnesses including Kern County Water Agency General Manager Jim Beck and Fresno County Supervisor and former farm bureau president Phil Larsen are prepared to speak about the pain of diminished water supplies.
The reduced water deliveries stem in part from environmental protections for fish that rely on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This year, farmers south of the delta will receive 75 percent of their contractual amounts. Last year, they received 45 percent.
Substantively, the reduced deliveries have united many Republicans and Democrats in anger.
Behind the scenes, though, bickering over who testifies poisoned hearing preparations.
For the Fresno hearing, Republicans could invite more witnesses than Democrats. Such partisan stacking is typical for congressional hearings.
But for reasons that are open to dispute, neither Republicans nor Democrats initially invited a representative of Westlands Water District. It was a stunning omission -- an insult, even -- for a hearing held in Westlands' back yard. The 600,000-acre water district is the nation's largest.
Democrats said they expected Republicans to extend the invitation since it was a GOP-run hearing. Republicans insist Democrats should have extended the invitation since the district is represented by Costa.
The subcommittee's senior Democrat, Rep. Grace Napolitano of Santa Fe Springs, had instead selected a Contra Costa County supervisor and a fishing industry representative. Napolitano is not an ally of Westlands.
Nunes, though far removed from Napolitano politically, has likewise clashed with Westlands, and for different reasons.
In an unusual move, Costa and Rep. Dennis Cardoza, D-Merced, finally wrote McClintock to ask that Westlands General Manager Tom Birmingham be added as a witness. Two days later, Nunes and Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Atwater, wrote in another letter that a "well-respected and knowledgeable representative" of the Valley's West Side should be added.
The subcommittee finally added Birmingham as a witness, for which both the Republicans and Democrats sought to take respective credit.
"It wasn't easy," Cardoza said of the hearing preparations.
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