Extending Army Corps of Engineers' Authority to Accept and Use Funds For Expedited Permit Processing

Floor Speech

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Mr. LARSEN of Washington. I want to thank the chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee for helping to bring this bill to the floor, and of course I thank both sides of the aisle on the full committee for bringing this bill to the floor.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 6184. This bill extends section 214 authority of the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 through 2016. It is currently authorized through December 31 of this year.

As my good friend and colleague from Florida just noted, many Members of Congress want to make this a permanent program. I am one of those Members. However, we were able to get to a point where we could move it from the annual reauthorizations that we were doing, which is why it has been reauthorized six or seven times, to a 5-year reauthorization at this point. I certainly look forward to working with Mr. Olson in the next session of Congress to see what we can do about its permanent authorization.

This program allows local governments to fund additional U.S. Army Corps of Engineers staff time to expedite the processing of permits for infrastructure and ecosystem restoration projects. Section 214 was enacted by Congress because the Corps of Engineers' permitting process had become cumbersome for both Corps staff and for applicants as the number of permit applications rose.

By funding additional staff to work on specific, time-intensive permits, existing Corps staff is now able to process significant permit backlogs more quickly. Funding for additional Corps staff has resulted in a reduction of permit wait times, not only for the funding entity, but for any individual organization seeking a permit. As a result, local governments are now able to move forward with infrastructure and ecosystem restoration projects in a much more timely manner.

To give you an idea as to what this has meant in Washington State, section 214 is currently being used by over 41 public agencies in 20 Corps districts. In Washington State, the city of Seattle was the first public entity in the country to develop and use this facilitated permitting process. The city has used the section 214 program for 285 projects, representing over $1.1 billion in capital investments. Seven years of using this program has resulted in an estimated cost savings of $10.6 million. The average review time per project has been reduced from over 808 days to an average now of 47 to 166 days.

In a region where we have to balance some of the most difficult environmental issues in the country and where we have the second highest commerce and trade area of any region in the country, section 214 is key to overcoming some permitting delays and other challenges.

So the authority granted by 214 has worked well in practice. This authority does need to be reviewed so additional staff can remain on the job without interruption. It makes several important improvements, as the subcommittee chair has noted--improvements that were suggested by the GAO--and these changes will enhance the oversight of the program.

I also want to note that this bill has the support of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the American Association of Port Authorities, the American Public Works Association, and the National Association of Flood & Stormwater Management Agencies.

Finally, I want to note as well that the father of this particular section of the Water Resources Development Act is our colleague Brian Baird, who has retired and is finishing out his last term in Congress. We certainly owe a debt of gratitude to our colleague Mr. Baird for bringing this issue up in the first place back in '98, '99 and 2000 and getting it in WRDA of 2000.

We now need to reauthorize it for 5 years and move this bill forward. I ask my colleagues to support it.

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