Congressmen David Valadao (R-Hanford) and Jim Costa (D-Fresno) spoke at a water forum at Fresno State today (April 12). They presented the Gazarian Real Estate Center updates on federal water projects and dealing with the bureaucracy.

After the event, GV Wire caught up with Valadao about the progress of building the Temperance Flat dam under the Trump administration.

“Obviously, if you follow the news, President Trump…his focus right now is cuts or at least more focus on how we make our investments the most beneficial. We’re going to have a struggle. The legislation we passed last year has some federal dollars in it, $335 million. We’ll work through the process to see as much as we can to get funded or create that process to get those dollars to our community as best as we can under the current situation we’ve got at the federal level.”

Last May, Candidate Donald Trump spoke at Selland Arena, making bold claims on California’s water problem.

“If I win, believe me we are going to start up the water so you can have your farmers survive. So your job market can get better,” Trump told the campaign supporters. “We’re going to get it done. And we’re going to get it done quick. Don’t even think about it. That’s an easy one. Don’t even think about it.”

I asked Valadao if he’s had a chance to speak to President Trump about any progress made on solving the water issue.

“With him, no not specifically. With the administration, yeah. We still continue to talk to them. There are still folks who need to fill in roles at the Department of Interior so we can work with the Bureau of Reclamation and others. As those roles are filled out, we’ll be looking to meeting with as many of those folks as we possibly can. There has been a little bit of a lag there because of roles needing to be filled.”

Contact David Taub

Phone: 559-492-4037 / e-mail

This story was not subject to the approval of Granville Homes.