2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended

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2-07 House Committee Lay Over Unamended Page 1 of 49 Madam Chair: Rep. Pemy: We're going to take testimony on House Bill 1177. Representative Penry would you like to tell us about your Bill? Thank you; sorry. I'm getting organized here. Thank you, Madam Chair and thank you members of the Committee for your consideration today. Thank you again, Madam Chair, for the opportunity to present and hear testimony on House Bill 1177, a bill that I believe would set Colorado's water policy on a new and important course; a course that would encourage renewed dialogue between the many and diverse regions of this state; one that would catalyze a greater degree of collaboration and cooperation between river basins. Most of all, one that would spur water stakeholders to seek meaningful, reason, comprehensive and lasting solution to this great state's great water supply challenges. As you know, Madam Chair, and as doubtlessly the rest of the members of this committee know, the foundation ofHB 1177 was the brain child of the next witness you'll hear from, Russell George, the former speaker of the house and now Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources. Certainly the fonner speaker's boss, Governor Bill Owens, deserves tremendous credit for quickly grasping onto the enormous potential in this new approach. As many of you recall in the State of the State address the Governor urged the legislature to pass legislation along the lines before us today. I also want to acknowledge leadership shown by Don Ament at the Department of Agriculture and Rod Cuharick at CWCB, whose ideas and insights will help us address some of the outstanding issues associated with this legislation. I'd also like to make mention of sort of the geographic diversity of the co-sponsors on this bill. Obviously beginning with Senator Jim Isgar who's the primary sponsor of the bill in the Senate. It's not often that a water bill of this scope and consequence is able to secure the kind of regionally diverse and bi-patiisan support that this bill currently has engendered from Denver to Durango, Grand Junction to Colorado Springs, Pueblo and beyond. The bill's co- sponsor list is a resounding statement about just how serious members of the House and Senate are, about moving beyond the www.escriptionist.com Page 1 of 49