Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. BILIRAKIS. Mr. Chair, I rise today to ask my colleagues to support increased accountability of the Army Corps of Engineers.

I thank, of course, Chairman Rogers and Chairman Simpson for their work on this appropriations bill and leadership to ensure scarce taxpayer dollars are well spent.

My amendment seeks to strike all funding for the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works.

Under current law, fringe groups are allowed to, for the cost of a postage stamp, Mr. Chair, file lawsuits against any infrastructure project needing a clean water permit that they spot in the Federal Register. This is outrageous. These lawsuits and the fear of them have stopped a number of worthy projects that were necessary for local governments to protect their constituents.

The Corps' failure to defend the public safety is because of a serious lack of leadership by the Corps, in my opinion. One such project in Pasco County, Florida, my Congressional District, is the Ridge Road extension, a much-needed route for hurricane evacuation.

For over two decades, this project has been in the permitting process because of the bureaucratic paper shuffling and duplicative environmental studies. During this time of scarce taxpayer dollars and economic uncertainty, we have pending infrastructure projects that can create jobs and protect the public, but the Corps often drags out the application process to push the applicant to drop their application out of fear that the agency will have to engage in litigation. These lawsuits are solely to kill worthy public safety projects, in my opinion, and not based on the merits of the projects.

I note this bill's committee report, which says that, ``the committee is concerned that the administration has not been taking congressional direction seriously,'' in regards to these permit projects.

There is clearly a serious leadership problem at this agency. This is an opportunity for the administration to act and ensure the public is protected.

The committee report also includes encouragement from the committee ``to keep in mind the public safety aspects of the project when considering permit applications and to pursue ways to shorten review times, including by performing reviews currently and eliminating duplicative reviews to the maximum extent practicable.''

I call the Corps to work with the communities across the country and approve these needed public safety projects to prevent needless loss of life. With reassurances from Chairman Simpson that the committee will continue to encourage the Corps to prioritize public safety projects, I would consider withdrawing the amendment at this time.

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