OFFICIALS LEGISLATION INTEREST GROUPS PUBLIC STATEMENTS COMMITTEES VETOES

Water Resources Development Act of 2018

Floor Speech

Date: June 6, 2018
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security Infrastructure

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of H.R. 8.

I want to say, too, the chairman's commitment to passing bipartisan WRDA bills every 2 years has been very impactful on better managing the bureaucracy of the Corps of Engineers.

I think we can all agree that the Corps needs regular examination of projects and policy to hold them accountable, and this is good government and a policy I would like to see the committee remain committed to in the future.

In my district, Mr. Chairman, this bill is extremely important to the agrculture economy and to everyone who relies on the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.

My district alone is bordered by 400 miles of Missouri and Mississippi River frontage. So we in northern Missouri are directly affected by the Corps' actions.

I am glad that the committee unanimously adopted my amendment to bring some common sense to the management of the endangered species-- specifically, the pallid sturgeon--that live along the Missouri River.

Past efforts to help the pallid sturgeon have led to multiple years of flooding and millions of dollars' worth of damage to my constituents. What is worse is the fact that the Corps has spent money year after year on population recovery, and it has not helped the pallid sturgeon one bit. This is absolutely unacceptable.

Before the Army Corps builds any new, unproven structures along the Missouri and spends millions of taxpayer dollars, they are now required to prove that it actually works. Furthermore, the Army Corps must prove that these structures, called IRCs, do not negatively impact the other management priorities on the Missouri River that the Corps is responsible for, most importantly, which is flood control and navigation.

Mr. Chairman, the Corps shouldn't be focused on constructing environmental habitats. They should be protecting people and businesses from flooding and helping facilitate navigation on the river. We have been down this road before with unproven methods to help fish over people.

In closing, this is a good bill. It is necessary to advance important flood control projects and ensure our inland waterways remain a reliable and efficient option for transporting goods up and down the rivers. I urge all my colleagues to vote for H.R. 8.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT


Source
arrow_upward