Water Resources Development Act of 2024
Floor Speech
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Mr. ROUZER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 8812, the Water Resources Development Act of 2024, referred to in short as WRDA.
I acknowledge and thank Chairman Graves, Ranking Member Larsen, and the ranking member of the subcommittee, Mrs. Grace Napolitano, for their work and partnership in crafting this bipartisan WRDA bill that we are considering today.
Today's WRDA bill will be the last for my good friend Congresswoman Napolitano, who has served honorably and effectively in this Chamber for 26 years. I am incredibly grateful for her leadership and her many contributions to improve water resource policy during her many years of service. It has been a pleasure serving alongside her on the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee, and I look forward to continuing to work with her as she finishes out this chapter of her stellar career in service.
Mr. Speaker, this year's WRDA bill was developed based on input from nearly 350 members of this body, which included more than 1,900 policy and project requests. The level of Member involvement demonstrates the impact, importance, and necessity of a biennial, bipartisan WRDA bill.
That is why I am pleased that our consideration of this legislation today continues the decades-long tradition of passing a WRDA bill every Congress. This consistent, predictable schedule enables Congress to better address water resource needs while providing direction to the Corps along with accountability.
The significant impact the Army Corps of Engineers has on our daily lives cannot be understated. Their projects serve the Nation by protecting life and property from storm events, including flooding caused by those, supporting navigation, and bolstering our economy.
The Corps operates and maintains 25,000 miles of navigable channels and 196 commercial lock and dam sites in 41 States. This work facilitates the movement of goods throughout our country and to critical export markets around the world. To reduce flood risk and storm damage, the Corps maintains 715 dams and 4,100 miles of levees and conducts beach nourishment projects along approximately 350 miles of shoreline, which by the way, are critically important to my district and coastal communities nationwide.
This bill authorizes the construction of 12 projects for navigation, hurricane and storm risk reduction, flood risk management, and ecosystem restoration. It authorizes more than 160 feasibility studies to evaluate new water resource projects and modifies existing ones. Additionally, this legislation includes policy reforms designed to increase transparency and expedite projects. Every project large and small is crucial to an effective and efficient water resource network. That is why the centerpiece of today's bill streamlines project delivery and empowers local communities to lead in the project development process.
As many of us know, the Corps' process can be challenging to navigate. We have addressed this through the establishment of a community project adviser at the Corps, assisting communities in accessing information on Corps programs and addressing project challenges. This bill also creates new ways for non-Federal project sponsors to lead their projects and reduces bureaucratic hurdles to project delivery and development by delegating decisionmaking authorities for small projects to the district level rather than adding unnecessary time delays by requiring Washington's approval. WRDA 2024 also directs the Corps to use their existing online permit system to include NEPA documentation, increasing transparency for non-Federal sponsors.
In closing, I want to highlight two provisions significant to my constituents and the country. The language of this bill provides important clarity on the use of dredged material placement sites. Recently, Corps policy has disallowed the disposal of dredge material at Federal easement sites owned by States and localities. This legislation restores policy to its original interpretation, allowing for, once again, non-Federal placement at these sites, which are often owned by the same entities wishing to utilize them.
This year's bill also expands on WRDA 2022 programming, directing the Corps to carry out waterway debris and sediment mapping studies. WRDA 2024 builds off of the previous pilot program and creates a National Coastal Mapping Program, through which the Corps can map inland and coastal waterways nationwide to identify hazards leading to increased flood risk, providing important information to inland and coastal communities to mitigate future flood risk.
Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is this commonsense legislation will have many positive impacts nationwide, and I encourage my colleagues to support it.
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Mr. ROUZER. Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.
I emphasize again the importance of this WRDA 2024 bill, which delivers improvements to flood control, infrastructure, ports and harbors, and inland waterways across the country.
As I mentioned earlier, this legislation was developed based on input from nearly 350 Members of this body on Army Corps projects, programs, and policies that are important to their constituencies. As a result, this bill not only authorizes locally supported water resource projects and studies to evaluate future projects, but it also provides the Corps and local project sponsors the tools to more effectively and efficiently complete those projects, saving both time and money.
Importantly, this bill will increase American competitiveness and strengthen our supply chains. I can't overstate how important that is.
As my colleagues know, these bills could not be done without the hard work and countless hours our staff put into this process. They had their work cut out for them with this bill, with more than 1,900 requests that were made and sorted through.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee staff, Ryan Hambleton, Tim Petty, Lydia Denis, Adele Braun, Corey Kuipers, and Jacob Pratt.
I also thank the full committee staff, Jack Ruddy, Abigail Wenk, Meghan Holland, Tyler Sanderson, Chris Devine, Leslie Parker, Justin Harclerode, Kerry Goldberg, Payton Palazzolo, Tyler Micheletti, Brianna Garcia, and Rachel Sakrisson, and I thank the minority staff, led by Kathy Dedrick and Ryan Seiger. They all did a tremendous job.
Finally, I thank my colleagues here today on the committee and in this Chamber for their participation and work to develop this very important and crucial bill.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support of H.R. 8812, what we know as WRDA 2024, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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Mr. ROUZER. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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