S. 3021

Floor Speech

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Mr. McCONNELL. Mr. President, later this morning, the Senate will vote to deliver the most substantial infrastructure legislation yet considered by this Congress to communities across America.

Yesterday, I spoke about President Trump's challenge to improve our Nation's infrastructure, and I laid out how America's Water Infrastructure Act will represent a major step toward meeting that challenge nationwide. This comprehensive legislation meets all sorts of pressing needs unique to different corners of our country--from dams, levees, and flood control, to safer drinking water and sewage systems.

There are national issues at stake, such as the ability of American producers and manufacturers to access markets around the world, but the questions at stake are also very local. By way of example, I would like to highlight just a few of the ways this legislation will have a direct impact on communities in my home State of Kentucky.

First, the bill before us includes a measure that will protect property owners from paying thousands of dollars in fees to fix decades-old surveying mistakes by the Army Corps of Engineers. This is a critical issue for Kentucky's Rough River community, where the Army Corps' own errors threatened to stick local landowners with a steep bill. I was pleased to lead the charge in crafting a commonsense solution to prevent this Kentucky community from paying a financial price for government mistakes.

This legislation also halts the imposition of burdensome fees on water use in Lake Cumberland, and it extends my Freedom to Fish Act for 5 years by barring the Army Corps from prohibiting fishing in the tailwaters of Barkley and Wolf Creek Dam. For so many communities in my State, fishing is both a hobby and a way of life. This is not an area where the Federal Government needs to jump in between Americans and their own backyards. We had to pare back this regulatory overreach. This legislation does exactly that.

Here is one more example. In States like Kentucky where waterways play such a pivotal economic role, it is also crucial that the Army Corps be equipped to demolish defunct parts of our waterways infrastructure that now stand in the way of progress. These efforts will allow communities along Kentucky's Green and Barren Rivers to make these waterways healthier, safer, and more attractive for outdoor recreation.

I am proud this legislation authorizes these important steps forward.

This is the beauty of America's waterways. It is a national issue, but it touches local communities across the country in very direct and specific ways.

I am proud of the ways this legislation will help Kentucky. I know each of my colleagues knows just as many ways this bill will impact their own State for the better. That is underscored by last night's overwhelming bipartisan vote of 96 to 3. I look forward to a similar bipartisan vote later this morning to send this significant infrastructure bill to the President's desk for signature into law.

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