Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2012
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRAVES of Missouri. Mr. Chairman, basically what I'm trying to do here is to point out the absurdity and misalignment of priorities which have become clear in this appropriations bill.
I live along the Missouri River in Missouri, and we've had families that have been inundated by the flooding that has taken place this year with no real end in sight, to be quite honest with you. This underlying bill provides $73 million for the Missouri River Recovery Program which is used to fund habitat creation projects. Unfortunately, the underlying bill only provides slightly more than $6 million for the maintenance of the levees all the way from Sioux City, Iowa, to the mouth of the Missouri, where it meets up with the Mississippi. So essentially we are spending nearly 12 times more to buy land for the betterment of fish and birds than we are to protect farmers, businesses, and homes that are being flooded right now.
This year, many levees in Missouri have been breached and overtopped as a result of the amounts of water and the mismanagement of the river, and many people in my district have been evacuated and will remain evacuated for months, in some cases. The President has issued an emergency disaster declaration for parts of Missouri, and yet here we are spending, again, $73 million for fish and wildlife and a mere $6 million for the maintenance of these levees.
While I believe conservation is important, we should not overlook what it is we sometimes sacrifice to achieve conservation. In this case, we are sacrificing the livelihoods of businesses and farmers and are destroying homes.
Again, my amendment just simply transfers money from the construction account to the operations and maintenance account. The intent is just to reduce funding in one and increase that funding in the other. With that, I would urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
I yield back the balance of my time.
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