Water in our district is not a future problem. It is a right-now problem.
The Colorado River operating agreements expire this year. This new decade-long deal will determine whether families, farmers, and Tribal nations in the eastern half of our district have water, or not. I will be in Washington fighting for our fair share. Committee seats, advocacy partnerships, all of it.
WaterSMART is being gutted.
There are federal programs our region depends on that are being cut right now. The administration tried to zero out WaterSMART entirely. Congress fought back, but it still got cut to just forty-one million dollars. That is not acceptable.
WaterSMART funds water recycling, conservation, and local infrastructure projects across the West. Riverside and San Diego counties should be getting more of that money, not less. I will fight to restore and expand that funding.
WRDA and infrastructure.
I would also support stronger investment through WRDA, the Water Resources Development Act, which funds the Army Corps of Engineers' infrastructure projects. Our region needs those dollars coming here.
Water quality.
The Safe Drinking Water Act needs stronger enforcement and updated contaminant standards. Communities near agricultural corridors in our district are already feeling the effects of that gap. Clean water is not a luxury, it is a baseline.
Water touches everything here in the 48th. What families pay. Whether farmers survive. Whether Tribal communities thrive for the next generation.
Eric Shaw
I am not waiting for a crisis to act. The crisis is now.
Transportation and accessibility.
Voters in CA-48 have told me directly: transportation and accessibility are quality-of-life issues that have been ignored for too long. I will make sure those voices reach Washington.