Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. LYNCH. Madam Chair, I would just like to raise an issue here with the amount of money in this bill that we are appropriating for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers construction account. I have heard several of my colleagues here speak earlier on individual projects in their districts that affect their constituencies, and I am totally in agreement with that on both sides of the aisle.

But I do want to acknowledge the priority that should be recognized in this bill, and that is recognizing the impacts of these large coastal storms. I happen to represent the port of Boston and the community south of Boston along the south shore; a beautiful area that has a great number of towns with great history there. While they were not affected to the degree that New York and New Jersey were during Hurricane Sandy--Superstorm Sandy--a lot of their infrastructure was damaged to the point of near collapse. So there is a great need for seawall reconstruction. They withstood that impact. They did the job that they were intended to do at the time that they were constructed. But I feel that this bill in its current form continues to undermine the ability of the Army Corps of Engineers to keep pace with the needed maintenance and reconstruction of our infrastructure.

I just want to call to mind the whole initiative here and what our priorities should be. We are, in many cases across the country, the beneficiaries of people who came before us and made the necessary investments in infrastructure. They saw the need, and we today, and up to today, have enjoyed a competitive advantage against some of our international neighbors because our infrastructure is there.

There is a definite increase in the number of these catastrophic storms. It seems like in my area we have 100-year storms every 3 or 4 years now. There is definitely something going on with climate change and the intensity of these storms.

It seems appropriate that we try to recognize the need here. I notice we are putting an awful lot of money into fossil fuel research and not nearly enough money to recognize the impact that climate change has already had on a lot of our coastal areas. We should be reinvesting in that infrastructure so that we are not faced with the total collapse that we saw in New York and New Jersey with Superstorm Sandy.

I just would call on my colleagues across the aisle in a request for bipartisanship and for recognizing the long-term interests of Americans across the country, Democrats and Republicans, and making sure that we use a commonsense approach in this bill. I think that we are off course with respect to the defunding of the construction account for the Army Corps of Engineers, not just for my district--I'm not saying that just for the communities that I represent who do have considerable need because of recent storms--I'm talking about all across the country. I'm talking about Republican districts as well as Democratic districts.

We have a wonderful organization here in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. They do fantastic jobs. We get more than our money's worth. We put $1 into the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and we get $5 back or $7 back, depending on the project. I think it is just wise stewardship to make sure they have the resources necessary to perform the reconstruction in some cases and maintenance in other cases of the seawalls along the east and west coast to make sure that we are indeed prepared for these storms that are inevitably coming.

I have an amendment later on at the appropriate time in this bill where I will be asking for additional money for the construction account of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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