Hearing of the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee of the Environment and Public Works Committee - Providing Necessary Flood Protection to Protect Coastal Communities

Hearing

Good morning, and thank you for joining me in New Orleans today for the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee hearing on providing necessary flood protection to protect coastal communities.

I would also like to thank our witnesses for being here today:

· - Colonel Rick Hansen, Commander of Army Corps of Engineers New Orleans District

· - Mr. John Monzon, P.E., Regional Director, Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority- West

· - Mr. Todd Murphy, President, Jefferson Chamber of Commerce

· - Mr. Robert Turner, Regional Director, Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection- East

· - Ms. Shirley Laska, PhD, Professor Emerita of Sociology, UNO-CHART University of New Orleans

Today we will examine the challenges and successes of constructing and maintaining hurricane and storm damage risk reduction systems to protect metropolitan areas from coastal disasters, and also discuss policy proposals regarding the construction and maintenance of hurricane protection systems.

As the top Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee last year, I worked to pass a water resources bill in Congress and have it signed into law. The Water Resources Reform and Development Act (or WRRDA) provides benefits to Louisiana and includes several provisions to address our state's critical water resource issues -- including hurricane and flood protection, ecosystem restoration, and economic development needs. It also speeds up the project delivery process, gives more project control to locals, and makes the Corps' process more accountable and transparent.

To better protect communities, I made sure that WRRDA would authorize the Morganza to the Gulf hurricane protection project, provide for future levee lifts to the hurricane protection system, stabilize our eroding riverbanks, and create a comprehensive program for levee rehabilitation.

We need to make sure that the changes to the flood insurance program are administered in a fair and reasonable way and that people who have been following the rules aren't priced out of their homes because their flood insurance rates increase so dramatically. That is why I co-authored legislation with a bipartisan group of Senators to temporarily freeze some of the aggressive premium increases associated with Biggert-Waters and require FEMA to scientifically assess all flood control structures before issuing new flood maps to communities.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today, and thank you again for joining me.

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