On Leadership and the Water Package

A great deal has been written about the substance of the water reform bills that was passed by the legislature in the wee hours Wednesday.  Here’s NRDC’s statement on the three key bills.  And here’s a thoughtful editorial from the Los Angeles Times this morning.  I’ll write more about the substance of these bills later.  But the story the media has yet to cover is what it really takes to pass a package of bills like this. 

The California legislature is a famously unruly institution and water is a famously thorny issue.  Passing a single major water bill requires extraordinary amounts of hard work.  Passing an entire package of water bills takes a herculean effort, and, in this case, the load was carried to a remarkable extent by just a few legislators who led this effort.  Assemblyman Mike Feuer and Senators Fran Pavley and Joe Simitian were authors of bills that evolved dramatically after endless committee hearings and were swept into this final package.  They’ve been working on these bills for two years or more.  But the heaviest lifting in the legislature was done by Senate President pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg and Assemblyman Jared Huffman. 

Speaker Karen Bass tapped Huffman to lead the Assembly effort because of his extensive background on water issues – a rarity among legislators in the era of term limits.  (He worked for years for NRDC’s Water Program and sat for a decade on the Board of the Marin Municipal Water District.)  Huffman worked tirelessly to recruit reluctant support from Republicans and members representing agricultural districts.  He brokered endless agreements on amendments to turn opponents into supporters. 

Nothing could be easier for an environmental legislator from Marin than to vote against bad bills and introduce a long series of modest green bills. But Huffman had the courage to tackle Delta water issues – among the toughest political and environmental issues in the state.  The final package of three key reform bills represents a dramatic new direction for California water policy and had support from NRDC, the Environmental Defense Fund, The Bay Institute, The Nature Conservancy, The Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, Trout Unlimited and CalTrout.  Nevertheless, Huffman took harsh criticism from some environmental friends, some of whom criticized his efforts to attract broad enough support to pass the bills.

Senator Steinberg was the quarterback of the entire legislative effort.  He led negotiations with key legislators, the Administration and stakeholders, and revived the package from several near-death situations.  During the end of the legislative session, it was not uncommon for legislators to grab 2 or 3 hours of sleep before heading back to the Capitol to keep slogging through the arcane and labyrinthine legislative process.  The toll this process takes on even the hardiest people was evident in the morning hours before passage.  By 3 a.m. on Wednesday morning, Senator Steinberg looked less like a legislator than a boxer at the end of a championship bout.  Despite suffering from sleep deprivation and a cold, Steinberg remained quick on his feet with his members and his frequently amended bills and worked tirelessly to respond to requests from around the state and concerns from his Sacramento district. 

For many politicians, President pro Tempore of the Senate is a plum job – the second most powerful in the state.  But I assure you, by 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, no one in the Capitol would have wanted Steinberg’s job. 

Environmental issues are not unique.  California is an enormous, diverse and hard-to-govern place.  Not surprisingly, the legislature is a microcosm of that nation state.  Change doesn’t come easily here on any tough political issue.  But when it does come, often it is because of the leadership and personal sacrifice of just a few extraordinary people.  We owe them our gratitude.