Water Resources Development Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. REED. Mr. President, I strongly support S. 2848, the Water Resources Development Act, WRDA, of 2016.

I want to thank and commend Chairman Inhofe, Ranking Member Boxer, and their staffs for developing a bipartisan bill to authorize and invest in our Nation's infrastructure--our harbors and waterways, flood and coastal protection projects, and drinking and clean water systems.

I particularly want to thank them for including provisions on small dam safety from S. 2835, the High Hazard Potential Small Dam Safety Act that I introduced with Senator Capito. Like our bill, this legislation creates a new program in the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, to assist States and communities in rehabilitating small dams that have high-hazard potential, meaning that they threaten human life and property if they fail. There are thousands of these dams across the country, and we have seen the damage they can cause in the instances when they have failed. While there are programs to address small agricultural dams that were built by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, there is no Federal program to deal with the small dams that proliferate the Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest, including 78 high-hazard potential dams in Rhode Island. The bill authorizes up to $445 million over 10 years to begin to address these structures, with funding to be disbursed on both a formula and a competitive basis. Estimates show that $1 of predisaster mitigation spending can save between $3-$14 in postdisaster spending. Therefore, by assisting in the repair or removal of high-hazard dams before they fail, this program makes an investment in future cost savings, not to mention lives and property saved.

The bill also includes language to address concerns that Senator Whitehouse and I identified about marine debris and abandoned Army Corps projects in Narragansett Bay by expanding the Corps' authority to remove obstructions adjacent to Federal navigation channels. I am pleased that the bill reauthorizes the Water Resources Research Act, which allows the U.S. Geological Survey to provide grants to colleges and universities, including the University of Rhode Island, to support research to improve water supply, address water quality, and train researchers. Additionally, the bill requires a study of the Army Corps' policies on aquaculture in certain areas of the country. Shellfish aquaculture is something we do well in Rhode Island, where there is an excellent relationship with the Corps and where the industry continues to grow. I hope the studies authorized in this bill will be informed by our State's very productive experience.

Beyond the traditional authorizations, the bill also includes important policy changes and funding to deal with the tragic public health and drinking water crisis in the city of Flint, MI, which was brought about by disastrous cost-cutting measures that caused lead contamination in the water supply. The situation in Flint is acute and pronounced. The $100 million in funding provided under the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and the $70 million under the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act is long overdue.

However, drinking water is not the only source of lead contamination. Communities across the country are finding lead contamination in their soil and in the paint within their homes. In fact, lead-based paint is the leading cause of lead poisoning in children. Sadly, this is nothing new, and too often, it is low-income families and communities that experience this problem. This issue has long been a concern of mine. My home State of Rhode Island has the fourth oldest housing stock in the country. For the past two decades, I have undertaken initiatives to address lead-based paint hazards. I have pushed for increased funding for housing and public health programs to better track lead hazards and then remediate those hazards within homes for low-income families. While these investments have been significant, more must be done.

As ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee for Transportation and Housing, I have worked with my chairman, Senator Collins, to direct HUD to update the elevated blood lead level standard that requires an immediate environmental investigation in HUD assisted housing. This aligns HUD's standard with the recommendations of health experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC. Senator Collins and I have gone a step further in the fiscal year 2017 bill, providing $25 million to help public housing agencies comply with this new rule and an additional $25 million for the Office of Lead Hazard Control and Healthy Homes that provides grants to help low-income families mitigate lead-based paint hazards in their homes.

I am pleased that the WRDA bill builds on our efforts in the Appropriation Committee by providing an additional $10 million for the Healthy Homes program over the next 2 years, as well as $10 million for the CDC's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Fund, which supports research and funds State programs to address and prevent childhood lead poisoning. The bill also provides $10 million for the HHS Healthy Start Initiative to connect pregnant women and new mothers with health care and other resources to foster healthy childhood development.

Many of these measures and others are ones that I have joined some of my Democratic colleagues in proposing in legislation we introduced known as the True LEADership Act of 2016. They add a new dimension-- public health--to a bill that is typically about ``bricks and mortar.'' For these reasons, I urge my colleagues to join me in voting for this bill. Section 2004

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