House & Senate Open Conference to Water Resources Bill

Statement

House and Senate negotiators met today to discuss a package authorizing critical flood protection, navigation and environmental restoration projects for communities across the United States.

Today's meeting officially began the conference to H.R. 1495, the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 (WRDA). Conferees agreed to work expeditiously to resolve a few remaining details so that both chambers may have the opportunity to approve the conference report before the August recess.

The following is the opening statement of U.S. Rep. John L. Mica (R-FL), Republican Leader of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from today's meeting:

For the first time since 2000, the Congress is on the verge of passing a major bill authorizing projects, studies, policies, and programs related to the Army Corps of Engineers.

There has been a WRDA introduced in every Congress since 2000, however, controversy always seemed to arise that dashed our hopes for a new authorization bill. Over the years we have worked to bridge the gaps created by those controversies and have arrived at the point where we now have a product that the conference can approve and recommend to our colleagues.

I want to thank Don Young, the former chairman of this committee, who worked for many years to resolve the difficult issues surrounding this bill; and also Jimmy Duncan who chaired our Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee for 6 years and worked closely with the Ranking Members Jerry Costello and Peter DeFazio to create many of the compromises that made this conference report possible.

I certainly want to thank you, Chairman Oberstar, for your leadership over the years both as Ranking Member and now as Chairman of the Full Committee. It has been very rewarding to work with you on this bill and it shows what we can accomplish when we work together in a bipartisan way to address the Nation's needs.

Senator Boxer and Senator Inhofe, under your leadership the Senate passed a bill that included many of the same projects addressed in the House bill. I think it is appropriate that the package before us today represents a compromise of the House and Senate bills into a good product that both chambers can proudly support.

This bill has been under development for many years. It is the result of much debate and much compromise. This is not the bill that any of us in the room would have written, if we were writing a bill by ourselves. However, it is a bill that all of us can support because it addresses important needs of our Nation.

This is a good bill that represents investments in America. These investments will improve trade, protect our homes and businesses from flood damages, and enhance our quality of life by restoring aquatic ecosystems.

This legislation ensures our ports and waterways remain viable in the international marketplace by authorizing critical navigation deepening projects. Without these projects shippers will go to other foreign ports like those in Canada and Central America.

For some goods, as much as 50% of the ultimate price paid by the consumer is attributable to transportation costs. Keeping these costs low not only benefits consumers here in the United States, it also makes products produced in the United States more competitive on the world market. Congestion at an outdated lock on a waterway can result in increased costs that rob the farmer of his or her profit. Delay and its associated costs also can rob a farmer of his or her market. This is not a speculative concern.

Recently, improved transportation systems in South America have allowed farmers there to keep their costs low enough to underbid United States grain farmers for customers located in the United States. America's farmers, like the rest of the United States economy, depend on modern and efficient waterways as an integral part of the intermodal transportation system.

Trade builds wealth. But to realize the economic benefits of trade, we must have a modern transportation system. To maintain our place in the global economy, the United States must have modern ports and waterways that can bring the World's goods to our door and make America's products competitive on the world market. Our ports and waterways need to be improved to handle the additional traffic and larger class of ships that we know are coming. This bill addresses these needs in several ways including authorizing improvements to waterways in my home State of Florida, as well as in Texas, Louisiana, and Virginia. In addition, it authorizes 7 new locks and other navigation improvements on the upper Mississippi River.

The WRDA conference report authorizes critical projects to provide flood protection to millions of Americans. Flood damage reduction projects save Federal dollars by reducing the probability that disaster relief will have to be used in the future. This bill includes a multitude of projects that protect our cities from floods and coastal storms.

As our Nation has become more environmentally conscious, and sought ways to improve aquatic ecosystems, the Corps of Engineers has become a leader in planning and carrying out environmental restoration projects. This conference report is by far the greenest, most environmentally-friendly Water Resources Development Act ever. The most frequent purpose of new Corps of Engineers project authorizations in this bill is environmental restoration.

This conference report contains critical provisions to restore the Everglades.

Everglades restoration has been talked about for years, but with the projects authorized in this bill, actual work and construction of projects can begin. Not only is the Everglades vital to the economy, environment and people of Florida, it is a national treasure that must be cared for and protected for future generations of Americans.

These projects have been brought forward by the Corps in partnership with the State of Florida. The State of Florida has stepped up with their share of funds for these projects. Now that we have these first authorizations, Congress should be supportive of funding this important effort to save a national treasure. These are just the first of what will be many projects over the next several decades to clean up, store, and redirect water for the Everglades.

Although this bill doesn't provide guaranteed funding - money will have to be appropriated to meet these authorization levels - it represents a critical commitment by the Congress to restore an ecological jewel of the United States. This legislation will help ensure a revitalized Everglades for generations to come

Also addressed in this bill are policy issues that improve how the Corps of Engineers does projects. We have instituted an Independent Peer Review into the Corps' planning process to enhance the agency's credibility. We are improving project monitoring to determine if the projects are performing as designed.

I know that some are not happy with the size of this bill; however, we must remember that the conference report represents the pent-up demand of three WRDA bills. Congress has not passed a WRDA bill in seven years. And if we wait any longer it will just be a bigger bill, because the nation's needs are not going away by themselves. We must address them like we are doing here today.

I look forward to supporting this package today and I look forward to its final approval by both the House and the Senate next week.

Source