Water Resources Development Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Chairwoman, I thank the chairman of the committee. As a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee who has the great privilege to represent four Texas ports in my district in Texas, it is truly an honor to offer this amendment today on their behalf.

Right now, the Corps of Engineers is in the midst of a study of the Houston Ship Channel to evaluate potential improvements. This study will examine the process for widening the channel and extending the 45- foot depth further inland. This is a necessary and well-intentioned study for an extremely worthy project.

However, everyone involved in producing it is discovering that the Corps processes involved are outdated and inefficient. These processes are unable to adequately evaluate the national benefits of the improvements being studied or the implications of major operational changes in the future.

As a result, unless reforms are made, this Corps study and others like it will not recognize the benefits of widening a waterway like the Houston Ship Channel in certain areas; areas that can lead to a restriction of one-way traffic in the future, as vessels become larger and larger over time.

The Houston Ship Channel is the busiest waterway in the Nation. It supports the top exporting region and the largest petrochemical manufacturing center in the United States. Ensuring an efficient waterway now and into the future is critical for the region, for the State of Texas, and for the Nation.

This amendment takes a first step in righting this process by having this Congress to make clear to the Army Corps of Engineers the importance and the benefits of projects to improve two-way traffic safety in high-volume areas in deep draft navigation channels.

And while I certainly want to go further and eventually get these formulas fixed into the law, I understand that this needs to be an incremental process.

I want to thank Chairmen Shuster and Graves, and Ranking Members DeFazio and Napolitano, and their staffs, for working with us to get this process underway with this very commonsense amendment.

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Mr. BABIN. Madam Chair, I also rise in strong support of amendment No. 8, by the gentlewoman from Connecticut (Ms. Esty).

I am very proud to be the lead Republican cosponsor. The Texas Gulf Coast is not just the export capital of the United States and energy capital of the world, it is a national treasure lined with vibrant communities, fisheries, key military assets, and outdoor recreation that millions call home.

But as we saw with the 1900 Galveston hurricane; Hurricane Rita in 2005; Hurricane Ike in 2008; and Hurricane Harvey just last year, all of those great assets that I just spoke of are at risk of finding themselves literally in the eye of the very next storm.

That is why leaders in my State have come together to produce this, the Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan, a roadmap for the local, State, and Federal officials to study and construct projects to keep our coastal communities safe, restore and preserve our beaches and wetlands, and provide energy security for all Americans.

A summary of the Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan by the Texas General Land Office can be found at: http://www.glo.texas.gov/coastal- grants/projects/texas-coastal-resiliency-master-plan.html.

Madam Chair, this amendment will require the National Academy of Sciences to study and report on whether the Army Corps should measure the cumulative benefit of a holistic plan like the Texas Coastal Resiliency Master Plan when determining benefit-to-cost ratios. I am confident that the answer will be yes. This study is an important step to get us there.

Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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