Bolts Ditch Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEGUSE. Mr. Speaker, first and foremost, I thank the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hoyle), my colleague and the ranking member. I also thank Chairman Westerman for his support and his team and his staff for giving us the opportunity here to consider a number of bills that are bipartisan, common sense, and certainly mean a lot to the folks who I represent out West.

Mr. Speaker, as you may know, I represent Colorado's Second Congressional District. It is an incredibly large geographical district. It is a district that spans across more than 8,000 square miles. It is larger than eight States on the eastern seaboard and spans 12 counties and over 55 towns.

I have the privilege of representing this incredible district each and every day back home in Colorado. When you represent a district of that size and scale, you learn early on how important it is to be present in your communities to be able to listen directly to constituents, local leaders, the folks on the ground, about problems that you can ultimately help to solve.

This bill is a perfect example. It is a bill that has been described well by the chairman and the ranking member that, in effect, would ensure that a number of different water authorities--specifically, the Eagle River Water and Sanitation District and the Upper Eagle Regional Water Authority--would have access, as the town of Minturn already does, to the Bolts Ditch structure.

It builds on legislation that we successfully got across the finish line several years ago. It is common sense. It is bipartisan, and it means a great deal to the folks that I represent in western Colorado.

I hope that my colleagues can support this measure. I look forward to doing everything that needs to be done to get it to the President's desk.

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