"WASHINGTON -- Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer proposed emergency drought legislation Tuesday ahead of President Obama's planned visit to Fresno, as Democrats scrambled to counter GOP charges that trying to save rivers and fish during California's historic drought is destroying the nation's chief source of fruits and vegetables."

"The move by the two California Democrats greatly increases chances that Congress will pass something to get more water to Central Valley farmers.

With as much as a half million acres of the nation's richest farmland in danger of going fallow, the bill also reflects the political difficulties Democrats face in defending wildlife and rivers."

Carolyn Lochhead reports for the San Francisco Chronicle February 12, 2014. [2]