Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriation Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

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Ms. KAPTUR. I am rising to express sympathy with the authors of this amendment, Congressman Scalise and Congressman Richmond. And you're eloquent spokesmen for your districts and your regions.

I hope that you and the membership understand that one of the reasons that we reluctantly opposed your amendment is because the mark we were given in our bill is so far below what we need to meet all national needs. Your proposal is actually a new start, if we were using the classification system that we use. And as much as we want to fund it, we simply don't have the funds in the bill to do it.

The Corps has over $60 billion worth, $60 billion of backed up projects that they are not able to complete. It would be the biggest job creator in this country if we could move off the dime and fund those projects.

But to take and prioritize Louisiana as a new start over, for example, Sacramento, that has major challenges with their levee system, or St. Louis, how does one choose? Or the Great Lakes, where we can't dredge ports.

And I often tell the story that, without the dredging in the Great Lakes, pretty soon, rather than having a channel that's like this--they keep narrowing the channel because we have less and less money--pretty soon it's going to silt up. We won't be able to get anything through.

So we have a problem in our bill in trying to fund everything that is necessary for the sake of the Nation.

So your proposal is worthy, but how do we put you in the front of the line when others have been in line and we've not been able to complete their projects? We need to be able to have $60 billion in order to complete the work of the Corps with just existing projects that are already in line.

So I reluctantly stand here today in a very uncomfortable position. That project that you're referring to is billions of dollars in cost, and starting it now is something we simply can't afford, based on the allocation that we were given in our committee. We're below last year. We're below what's necessary for the Nation, and we're paying the price from coast to coast. So, Louisiana is deserving of attention, but so are 49 other States that have projects backed up.

And I say to the chairman, I completely share your pain in trying to hold the line at completing what is in line and not letting anyone else cut the line for their projects, no matter how worthy they are. Our fundamental problem is we don't have the funds to complete everything that is necessary.

So I urge my colleagues to vote with us in opposition to this amendment, as much as I sympathize with its worthiness. It just isn't possible with everything else that is in line ahead of it.

I yield back the balance of my time.

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