Congressman Jim Costa and Valley Representatives Dennis Cardoza, George Radanovich, Kevin McCarthy and Devin Nunes requested the hearing last month to discuss the drought and its impact on the people who live and work in the Valley.

The purpose of this hearing was to explore what the federal government can do to alleviate the harmful effects of this drought.

Local leaders are hoping they'll take information gathered today, back to Sacramento and Washington D.C. and enact new legislation.

Today, the House Subcommittee on Water and Power answered the bipartisan congressional request for a hearing to explore what can be done to alleviate the harmful effects of this year's drought, that some say is not just because of the dry weather, but is manmade.

Costa and other politicians who requested today's hearing say the primary factor primary factor contributing to the region's water problems is the judicial and federal reallocation of more than 3,000,000 acre feet of water from the region, to benefit fisheries and water quality.

Representative Devin Nunes says congress must act now.

Now Larson and others are hoping the subcommittee will take what they heard today back to Sacramento and Washington D.C. and enact legislation that would help a region that's been devastated by drought.

Click on the video link to watch Preston Phillips' live report.

Witnesses were scheduled in three panels:

Panel 1- Fresno County Supervisor Phil Larson; Mendota Mayor Robert Silva; Miguel Arias of the Drought Relief Strategies Group of Fresno (accompanied by farm worker Carlos Ramirez); and farmers Stewart Woolf and Kole Upton.

Panel 2- Dan Nelson, executive director of the San Luis-Delta Mendota Water Authority; Tom Birmingham, general manager of Westlands Water District; Ron Jacobsma, general manager of Friant Water Authority; and Philip Duffy of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Panel 3- Don Glaser, regional director of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (accompanied by Claudia C. Faunt, a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey); John Smythe, U.S. Department of Agriculture Farm Services Agency state executive director (accompanied by Jim Otto, a senior risk management specialist for the USDA); and Lester Snow, director of the California Department of Water Resources.