The Bay-Delta Estuary is the largest estuary on the West Coast. It is an ecosystem that supports an important array of species including listed salmon, steelhead, sturgeon, and smelt populations. In recent years, the Delta ecosystem has been on the verge of collapse. Water diversions from the Delta have depressed salmon numbers and resulted in the closure of the salmon fishery for the last two years. This has caused an economic disaster along hundreds of miles of the Pacific Coast, with estimated losses in California of $2.8 billion and 23,000 jobs in the commercial and recreational fishing industries in 2008 and 2009.

During consideration of H.R. 2847, the FY 2010 Commerce-Justice-Science appropriations bill, Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA) offered an amendment which would have prohibited funding of a biological opinion, or court-mandated protections, for the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary and for the threatened and endangered species that depend on the estuary. The amendment would have also threatened thousands of fishing jobs. Implementation of these protections is critical to restoring the health of the Bay Delta ecosystem and sustaining California's sport and commercial salmon fishery. The biological opinion is the result of several years of consultation with state and federal agencies and has undergone two separate peer review studies.

On June 18, the amendment was defeated 208-218 (House roll call vote 366). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE.