Hearing of the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee-Fiscal Year 2009 Department of the Army, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Interior Budget Requests and Justifications
Statement
Hearing of the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee-Fiscal Year 2009 Department of the Army, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and the Department of Interior Budget Requests and Justifications
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SEN. PATTY MURRAY (D-WA): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, for calling this hearing and thank you to all of the witnesses. I appreciate your attendance this morning to discuss these important topics. I do have to leave in just a few minutes to chair a hearing of Transportation and HUD subcommittee so I won't be able to probably make it back for questions so I wanted to take this opportunity to raise a few items with you now and I will be submitting questions for the record.
Secretary Woodley and General Van Antwerp, I want to commend the three Army Corps of Engineer (sic) districts that directly work with Washington State -- Seattle, Portland, and Walla Walla districts. They do a great work for my state and the people who live there, and the military and civilian staff both are responsive and they've worked very well with my staff and I appreciate that.
And while I do have a great working relationship with those offices it's often very difficult to make progress without adequate budgets being sent from this administration, and I am deeply concerned by the $846 million in cuts to the budget from the FY '08 appropriated dollars. This -- it seems to me just this annual game where the administration plays a game where they send us shortsighted budgets requests, expect Congress to fill in these important budget items, and we send them back to them and they veto them, and it's a game that is playing with lives and playing with really important projects and, you know, that's when I just really resent it.
I want to comment as well on the newly proposed user fees for the navigation locks to fund the Inland Waterway Trust Fund. This would place a really large burden on some river systems more than others and it makes no sense to me to abandon the established diesel tax and try to create this entire new bureaucracy. I don't understand why we just simply don't work to update the current vehicle.
You know, for years now I've been working with this committee and with you and the administration to deepen the Columbia River channel so we can allow larger ships and barges to carry millions of tons of cargo to domestic and international markets, and I am pleased with the inclusion of funds to continue this effort as the Columbia-Snake River system is a very important economic engine of great importance to our country.
However, it seems really illogical to me that the Corps would invest so much in the river transportation system and then try to implement a fee that could discourage those users away from the river system and back on to our roads and highways and a more expensive mode of transportation. So I am deeply concerned about that.
Turning back to the severe budget cuts and the projects left off the president's request, I do want to talk with you about a project in Centralia, Washington. We have been working with the Corps for many years -- many years on an important flood control project along the Chehalis River. This is a project that has been studied on, it has been reported on, and it was finally authorized in the WRDA bill that was passed by Congress last year over a presidential veto.
And as I'm sure you are aware, there was a tremendous storm off the coast of Washington State and Oregon last December. It caused tremendous flooding and damage. We haven't seen anything like that in my state for some time. The flooding shut down I-5, the main -- which is the main north-south freeway, from Washington State all the way to California for four days. The flooding overwhelmed the Chehalis River, the entire river basin, damaged homes, killed thousands of farm animals, destroyed local transportation infrastructure, and it cost us millions -- millions in debris cleanup.
We still have people in Centralia and the surrounding areas who are still trying to pick up the pieces of their homes and their businesses and their lives there that were destroyed, and I have been down there many times and visited with the people and the local officials and they are all really eager to find a way to prevent this from ever happening again, and I made a promise to the people -- those people to work here in Congress to get those funds. It's not an inexpensive project. It's authorized at $74 million on our side, $50 million on the state.
But in the budget that we're requesting today, Mr. Chairman, there is zero dollars. We cannot continue to do this and I -- if I can't come back I will submit questions about this. I would like to ask you to come to my office and work with me on this but, Mr. Chairman, I just reiterate we can't keep having this administration send us budgets that don't adequately fund the projects that we've been working with them on.
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SEN. MURRAY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I know vote's been called but I do want to ask two critical questions and one is on the Centralia Flood Project. This is the first budget request since the passage of WRDA, and the Centralia flood control project was included in that bill. It's a much needed project to prevent further damage from the Chehalis River rising over its banks. And now, I understand there are many projects that need funds, but it is really short sighted to pass up an opportunity to get moving on this levee project.
Can you share with me why this was not included in the President's proposed budget?
MR. DORGAN: Yes, Senator. The authorization came, I believe, in November. By that time our budget is very much in place and very few changes are made. I was only able to make a very few changes to respond to matters that were included in the authorization. We will be working on that project for future fiscal years and --
SEN. MURRAY: So you do expect it to be in the next request?
MR. DORGAN: I will say that unless -- I have not seen how it competes in that process and so that it will be in a position to compete, I believe, in that process.
SEN. MURRAY: "To compete in that process." That doesn't sound very promising.
MR. DORGAN: No, it doesn't sound very promising Senator, does it.
(Chuckles)
SEN. MURRAY: I mean, this is my frustration then --
MR. DORGAN: We have not funded new starts in our budget, generally speaking for some time.
SEN. MURRAY: Well, my understanding is --
MR. DORGAN: That is a new start.
SEN. MURRAY: Yeah. But capacity of this is $1.2 million. Mr. Chairman, these are what we have to do because the administration doesn't send us the adequate request that we have passed in authorization bills. We end up having to -- and this project, I think, is about $1.2 million that is needed this year -- have to do it as an earmark and then hear, well, all the bills are vetoed that earmarks. Well that's irresponsible. We have to start figuring out the honesty of this budget process and realize that the reason we have to go back and do these earmarks is because we have an administration that is not following through and giving us what we need in authorized projects.
Quickly, on the Chehalis River Basin study, same idea, this is a project that is sitting out there. Can you tell me why that was left off the table?
MR. DORGAN: Pardon.
I don't have the details on the Chehalis. If you pardon me one second I might be able to get --
Senator, I apologize, I will have answer that for the record.
SEN. MURRAY: I would appreciate that and appreciate the opportunity, Mr. Chairman, to come back and ask those questions. I think my state is seeing what a lot of states are but, when we're losing homes, it's costing us millions of dollars in damage because we're not doing an adequate job of fulfilling our responsibilities as a country.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
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