McMorris Rodgers, Newhouse Joint Statement Responding to Governor Inslee’s Announcement of Taxpayer Funds to Consider Breaching Snake River Dams

WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 13, 2018) — Today, Eastern Washington Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) and Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04) released the following joint statement on Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s proposed $750,000 in the state budget to support evaluation by a state task force of breaching the Lower Snake River dams:

“The people of Eastern Washington whose livelihoods depend on these dams should not be collateral damage for anyone’s presidential ambitions. The Governor does not have the authority to breach our federal dams on the Lower Snake River, and allocating state taxpayers’ funds to consider breaching them would be wasteful. Congress has the sole authority to authorize breaching our federal dams, and as representatives of Eastern Washington communities that depend on the many benefits they provide, breaching them is out of the question. We commit to do everything in our power to save our dams.”