[Senate Hearing 116-]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]



 
    ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2020

                              ----------                              


                       WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 2019

                                       U.S. Senate,
           Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The subcommittee met at 2:37 p.m. in room SD-138, Dirksen 
Senate Office Building, Hon. Lamar Alexander (chairman) 
presiding.
    Present: Senators Alexander, Murkowski, Hoeven, Kennedy, 
Hyde-Smith, Feinstein, and Shaheen.

                      DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE--CIVIL

                         Department of the Army

                       Corps of Engineers--Civil

STATEMENT OF R.D. JAMES, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE 
            ARMY (CIVIL WORKS)


              opening statement of senator lamar alexander


    Senator Alexander. The Subcommittee on Energy and Water 
Development will please come to order.
    Today's hearing will review the fiscal year 2020 budget 
request from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of 
Reclamation, which is part of the Department of Interior. This 
is the subcommittee's third budget hearing. And our fourth and 
final hearing will be May 1 to review the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission's fiscal year 2020 budget request. We're on 
schedule. If the powers that be, Senator Feinstein, will hurry 
up and get us a number to which to mark, we want to be--we want 
to finish our work and get on the floor and get our bill into 
law before the fiscal year starts, as we did last year.
    We have two votes in the Senate, and what I would propose, 
Senator Feinstein, is that we--at about 3:15, 3:20--the votes 
are at 3:00--that we will recess briefly and you and I will go 
over and vote on the first one and then the second one, and 
then we'll come back and resume. Would that be all right?
    Senator Feinstein. Yes, or go one after the other.
    Senator Alexander. Well----
    Senator Feinstein. You'd rather----
    Senator Alexander [continuing]. The staff recommended that 
maybe we go together and we'll stay right----
    Senator Feinstein. Oh, all right.
    Senator Alexander. Is that all right? I'd like to walk over 
with you.
    We'll--so that's what we'll do, and we'll make sure all the 
Senators have a chance to ask their questions and to make their 
statements.
    We'll each have an opening statement, Senator Feinstein and 
I, and then we'll recognize each Senator for up to 5 minutes 
for an opening statement, alternating between the majority and 
minority in the order in which they arrived. We will then turn 
to our witnesses and ask you to take 5 minutes each. And then 
we'll have our questions.
    First, I would like to thank our witnesses for being here 
and to express again how much I appreciate working with Senator 
Feinstein on these issues. We're proud of the record of this 
subcommittee in terms of its support for the agencies who are 
represented here.
    Our witnesses include R.D. James, Assistant Secretary of 
the Army for Civil Works; Lieutenant General Todd Semonite, 
Chief of Engineers for the U.S. Corps of Engineers; Brenda 
Burman, Commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation at the 
Department of Interior; and Timothy R. Petty, Ph.D., Assistant 
Secretary for Water and Science at the Department of Interior.
    Based upon the number of appropriations requests we receive 
each year, the Corps of Engineers must be the Federal 
Government's most popular agency. Because it's so many--it's so 
important that Senator Feinstein and I have provided record-
level funding in a regular appropriations bill for the Army 
Corps of Engineers for the last 4 years.
    The U.S. Army Corps touches the lives of almost every 
American. It maintains our inland waterways, deepens and keeps 
our ports open. Its dams provide emission-free renewable 
hydroelectric electricity. The Corps manages river levels to 
help prevent flooding. This year, record rainfall caused the 
Missouri River to experience historic flooding, devastating 
parts of Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri. I can recall when after 
the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers flooded in 2011, an entire 
roomful of United States Senators showed up at a Senate 
Environment and Public Works Commission hearing to ask what 
went wrong and what went right with the disaster relief efforts 
and to ask for more money.
    So there's a real interest in what the Corps does.
    Last year, we worked together to provide record funding, as 
I mentioned, a total of $7 billion. However, this year, the 
President's budget request only includes $4.8 billion for the 
Corps, a dramatic reduction in spending. In my opinion, we 
should spend more, not less, on the Nation's water 
infrastructure.
    Our national debt is a serious problem, but it's not 
because of our domestic spending. That's gone up at about the 
rate of inflation for the last 10 years, and it's projected to 
go up slightly more than the rate of inflation for the next 10 
years. It's the 70 percent of the budget that's the entitlement 
funding that is the cause of the debt, and we should keep that 
in mind as we decide what the appropriate level of funding for 
the Corps of Engineers is.
    I will focus my question on four main areas: water 
infrastructure, keeping it a priority and properly funding the 
inland waterways system; adequately funding our ports and 
harbors; making sure the Corps has the resources it needs to 
respond to flooding and to make repairs so they can continue to 
manage river levels; and using a more commonsense approach to 
making decisions about which projects receive funding by 
looking at the, ``remaining benefit-to-cost ratio of an ongoing 
project.''
    Today, because of Office of Management and Budget rules, 
the Corps has to pretend that a project is not already under 
construction when the Corps decides which projects will receive 
funding each year. This doesn't make any sense. And it makes it 
harder to complete projects on time and on budget.
    In 2012, Senator Feinstein, Senator Graham, and I said to 
our staff, ``Let's ask what a great country the United States 
would want from its ports, its locks, its dams, and waterways 
in order to fully maximize them for our economic growth.'' We 
asked everyone to focus on the big picture, what ought to be 
done, and not get bogged down in the difficulties of Senate 
rules and how to pay for it.
    From these discussions, Congress took three important steps 
focused on properly funding our inland waterways system.
    First, we passed a law that reduced the amount of money 
that comes from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund to replace 
Olmsted Lock, a project in Illinois and Kentucky that was 
soaking up almost all of the money that was available for 
inland waterway projects.
    Second, we worked with the commercial waterways industry to 
establish a priority list for projects that needed to be 
funded, on which Chickamauga Lock ranks near the top, in fourth 
place.
    And, third, we enacted a user fee, an increase--a user fee 
increase that commercial barge owners asked for to pay in order 
to provide additional funds to replace locks and dams across 
the country, including Chickamauga.
    These steps increased the amount of funding that was 
available for inland waterway projects from about $85 million 
in fiscal year 2014 to $105 million in fiscal year 2020, and 
Congress has followed through by appropriating all of the user 
fees that have been collected in the last 5 years. The user 
fees that are paid into the Inland Waterways Trust Fund by 
waterway users are matched with Federal dollars, which allows 
the Corps to make significant progress to address the backlog 
of work on our inland waterways.
    But despite knowing that the Inland Waterways Trust Fund 
would have $100 million available for fiscal year 2020, the 
administration's budget only proposes to spend $55 million of 
it. That means that half the money we collected from the 
customers of the barges--customers of the locks to improve the 
barges we're collecting and not spending. We wouldn't be 
spending the money for its intended purpose. And despite not 
spending the entire $105 million in user fees from commercial 
barges, the administration's budget also includes a new user 
fee for inland waterways that would raise another $1.8 billion 
over a 10-year window.
    Now, this is just an example of the administration trying 
to dress up big budget cuts to not look so bad. That's all it 
is. We're not going to pay any attention to it. I don't think 
it takes--it's a responsible approach at all. It makes no sense 
to ask barge owners to pay more in fees when the administration 
is not even proposing to spend all the fees that it's 
collecting today.
    The budget also proposes to fund a single project using 
Inland Waterways Trust Fund revenues, the Lower Monongahela, 
and eliminates funding for the other two projects that have 
been funded for construction for each of the last 5 years, 
Kentucky Lock and Chickamauga Lock.
    I can't count the number of times the head of the Corps, 
including General Semonite, have told me it makes no sense to 
start and stop construction on these lock projects. It's not an 
efficient way to build projects. It's a big waste of taxpayer 
money.
    Replacing Chickamauga Lock is important. If it closes, it 
will throw 150,000 more trucks onto I-75, for example. Funding 
for new construction for the new Chickamauga Lock has been 
provided for the last 5 years. It doesn't make sense not to 
include it in the budget request. This year's budget proposal 
is a huge step backwards for our Nation's inland waterways.
    Now, at ports and harbors, we've done a good job providing 
record-level funding, I mean the Congress has, over the last 5 
years to adequately fund our harbors, including Mobile Harbor 
in Alabama, Savannah Harbor in Georgia, Long Beach Harbor in 
California, and many others.
    Six years ago, we took a look at the need to provide more 
funding for ports and harbors to ensure that we can compete 
with other harbors around the world. We realize that the 
government was spending only a fraction of the taxes each year 
that we collect in the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for our 
ports and harbors, again resulting in billions of dollars of 
unspent funds just sitting there that gets bigger and bigger 
every year.
    This is just like what was happening in the Inland 
Waterways Trust Fund--well, it was like what was happening 
there, we were collecting the money and not spending it for its 
purpose. The difference is in the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, 
it has virtually no balance in the trust fund. The Harbor 
Maintenance Trust Fund has an unspent balance of nearly $9 
billion. In other words, we've collected $9 billion from the 
users of the harbors for the purpose of fixing the harbors, and 
we haven't spent it.
    To provide more funding for our ports and harbors, Congress 
enacts spending targets for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund 
in the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014. That 
was meant to cause us to spend a little more each year on 
harbor maintenance projects. We've met those targets for the 
last 5 years in the Energy and Water Development Appropriations 
bill.
    The target for fiscal year 2020 is about $1.6 billion. 
However, the administration budget only proposes to spend $965 
million, $585 million less than what Congress appropriated last 
year, and $630 million below the target. So I'll ask witnesses 
how they plan to sufficiently fund our ports and harbors 
without requesting adequate resources to do it.
    Several members of this subcommittee are interested in 
making sure the flood has the resources to deal with the recent 
flooding in the Midwest and along the Missouri and Mississippi 
Rivers. I look forward to hearing from witnesses about that.
    I'd also like to recognize today, as I did a little 
earlier, and I mentioned the witnesses Brenda Burman and Dr. 
Petty, they--the Bureau of Reclamation delivers water to one of 
every five farmers in the West, irrigating more than 10 million 
acres of some of the most productive agricultural land in the 
country. I know it is of deep importance, especially to Senator 
Feinstein and many other Senators on this subcommittee. We look 
forward to hearing your testimony.
    [The statement follows:]
             Prepared Statement of Senator Lamar Alexander
    The Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development will please come 
to order.
    Today's hearing will review the president's fiscal year 2020 budget 
request for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of 
Reclamation, which is part of the Department of the Interior.
    This is the Subcommittee's third budget hearing, and our fourth and 
final hearing will be May 1st to review the Nuclear Regulatory 
Commission's fiscal year 2020 budget request.
    First, I would like to thank our witnesses for being here today, 
and also Senator Feinstein, with whom I have the pleasure to work with 
again this year to draft the Energy and Water Appropriations bill.
    Our witnesses today include R.D. James, Assistant Secretary of the 
Army for Civil Works; Lieutenant General Todd Semonite, Chief of 
Engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Brenda Burman, 
Commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation at the Department of the 
Interior; and Timothy R. Petty, Ph.D., Assistant Secretary for Water 
and Science at the Department of the Interior.
    Based on the number of appropriations requests we receive each 
year, the Corps of Engineers is the Federal Government's most popular 
agency.
    Because this is so important to many Senators, Senator Feinstein 
and I have provided record level funding in a regular appropriations 
bill for the last 4 years.
    The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers touches the lives of almost every 
American. The Corps maintains our inland waterways, it deepens and 
keeps our ports open, and its dams provide emission-free, renewable 
hydroelectric energy.
    The Corps also manages river levels to help prevent flooding. This 
year record rainfall caused the Missouri River to experience historic 
flooding, devastating parts of Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri.
    I can recall when, after the Missouri and Mississippi rivers 
flooded in 2011, a room full of senators showed up at a Senate 
Environment and Public Works Committee hearing to ask what went wrong 
and what went right with disaster relief efforts. So, there's a real 
interest in what the Corps does.
    So, last year, Senator Feinstein and I worked together to provide 
record funding for the Corps of Engineers--a total of $7 billion.
    However, this year, the president's budget request only includes 
$4.8 billion for the Corps--a dramatic reduction in spending.
    In my opinion, we should spend more, not less, on our Nation's 
water infrastructure.
    Today I will focus my questions on four main areas: (1) making our 
Nation's water infrastructure a priority and properly funding our 
inland waterways system; (2) adequately funding our Nation's ports and 
harbors; (3) making sure the Corps has the resources it needs to 
respond to flooding and make repairs so they can continue to manage 
river levels, and (4) using a more common- sense approach to making 
decisions about which projects receive funding by looking at the 
``remaining benefit to cost ratio'' of an ongoing project. Today, 
because of Office of Management and Budget rules, the Corps has to 
pretend a project is not already under construction when the Corps 
decides which projects will receive funding each year. This does not 
make any sense, and makes it harder to complete projects on time and on 
budget.
    In 2012, Senator Graham, Senator Feinstein, and I said, ``Let's ask 
what would a great country, the United States, want from its ports, 
locks, dams, and waterways in order to fully maximize them for our 
economic growth.''
    We asked everyone to focus first on what needed to be done and not 
get bogged down in the difficulties of how to pay for it. From these 
discussions, Congress took three important steps, focusing on properly 
funding our inland waterways system.
    First, Congress passed a law that reduced the amount of money that 
comes from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund to replace Olmsted Lock, a 
project in Illinois and Kentucky that was soaking up almost all of the 
money that was available for inland waterway projects.
    Second, we worked with the commercial waterways industry to 
establish a priority list for projects that needed to be funded, on 
which Chickamauga ranks near the top, in fourth place.
    And third, we enacted a user fee increase that commercial barge 
owners asked to pay in order to provide additional funds to replace 
locks and dams across the country, including Chickamauga Lock.
    These steps increased the amount of funding that was available for 
inland waterways projects from about $85 million in fiscal year 2014 to 
$105 million in fiscal year 2020. And Congress has followed through by 
appropriating all of the user fees that have been collected in the last 
5 years.
    The user fees that are paid into the Inland Waterways Trust Fund by 
waterway users are matched with Federal dollars, which allow the Corps 
of Engineers to make significant progress to address the backlog of 
work on our inland waterways.
    But despite knowing the Inland Waterways Trust Fund would have $105 
million available for fiscal year 2020, the Administration's budget is 
only proposing to spend $55.5 million--which leaves 47 percent of these 
funds sitting unspent in a Treasury account. Then we would not be 
spending the money for the intended purpose.
    And despite not spending the entire $105 million in user fees from 
commercial barges, the administration's budget also includes a new user 
fee for inland waterways that would raise another $1.8 billion over a 
10-year window.
    I do not think this is a responsible approach. It makes no sense to 
ask barge owners to pay more in fees when the administration is not 
even proposing to spend all the fees we are collecting today.
    The budget also only proposes to fund a single project using Inland 
Waterways Trust Fund revenues, the Lower Monongahela, and eliminates 
funding for the other two projects that have been funded for 
construction for the last 5 years ? Kentucky Lock and Chickamauga Lock.
    I can't count the number of times that the head of the Corps--
including General Semonite--has told me that it makes no sense to start 
and stop construction. It's not an efficient way to build projects and 
it is a waste of taxpayer money.
    Replacing Chickamauga Lock is important to all of Tennessee and if 
Chickamauga Lock closes, it will throw 150,000 more trucks onto I-75.
    Funding for construction of the new Chickamauga Lock has been 
provided for the past 5 years so it does not make sense for the 
administration to not include the project in the budget request.
    This year's budget proposal is a huge step backwards for our 
Nation's inland waterways.
    We have done a good job providing record level funding over the 
last 5 years to adequately fund our Nation's harbors, including Mobile 
Harbor in Alabama; Savannah Harbor in Georgia; and Long Beach Harbor in 
California; and many others across the country.
    Six years ago, Congress took a look at the need to provide more 
funding for our Nation's ports and harbors to ensure we can compete 
with other harbors around the world.
    We realized that the government was spending only a fraction of the 
taxes each year that were collected in the Harbor Maintenance Trust 
Fund for our ports and harbors, resulting in billions of dollars of 
unspent funds just sitting in a bank account that got bigger and bigger 
each year.
    In fact, unlike the Inland Waterways Trust Fund--which has 
virtually no balance in the trust fund--the Harbor Maintenance Trust 
Fund has an unspent balance of over $9 billion today.
    To provide more funding for our ports and harbors, Congress enacted 
spending targets for the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund in the Water 
Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014 that were meant to make us 
spend a little more each year on harbor maintenance projects.
    We have met these targets for the last 5 years in the Energy and 
Water Development Appropriations bill.
    The target for fiscal year 2020 is about $1.595 billion. However, 
the administration's budget only proposes to spend $965 million, $585 
million less than what Congress appropriated last year and $630 million 
below the target.
    So I will ask the witnesses how they plan to sufficiently fund our 
ports and harbors without requesting adequate resources to do it.
    Several members of this subcommittee are interested in making sure 
the Corps has the resources it needs to deal with the recent flooding 
in the Midwest and along the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers.
    I look forward to hearing from the witnesses about what resources 
they need so that we can make sure they are included in the disaster 
supplemental appropriation bill.
    I'd also like to recognize Brenda Burman, Commissioner from the 
Bureau of Reclamation and Dr. Timothy Petty, Assistant Secretary for 
Water and Science at the Department of the Interior.
    The Bureau of Reclamation delivers water to one of every five 
farmers in the West, irrigating more than 10 million acres of some of 
the most productive agricultural land in the country.
    Although Reclamation doesn't manage water resources in Tennessee, I 
know of its deep importance to Senator Feinstein and other Senators on 
this subcommittee, and we look forward to hearing your testimony.
    With that, I'll turn to Senator Feinstein for her opening 
statement.

    Senator Alexander. Senator Feinstein.

                 STATEMENT OF SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN

    Senator Feinstein. Thanks very much, Mr. Chairman. And once 
again, 2 days in a row we're doing hearings together. Thank you 
very much for your leadership. You know how much I respect you 
and really enjoy working with you. So thank you.
    I'd like to welcome our witnesses and thank each of you for 
being here today. I don't think I have to tell you that we face 
immense challenges from climate change and natural disasters, 
and we've all witnessed them in form of-- in the form of 
drought, wildfire, hurricane, and flooding. Last year, my State 
had the deadliest and most destructive fire season in State 
history. One fire alone in Paradise burned 14,000 homes, killed 
85 people, and burned 150,000 acres. Part of this is global 
warming. The wind patterns are different. In talking with 
people, they were saying they couldn't escape, just blocks of 
fire was flying through the air and hitting through different 
parts of this community of 25,000 people, which was virtually 
wiped out.
    The Army Corps and the Bureau really do serve critical 
roles in addressing our Nation's most difficult water 
infrastructure challenges, and you do help prevent disasters 
that threaten our communities.
    In your role as the Nation's engineers, the Army Corps 
addresses the threat of natural disaster, in part by building 
and maintaining flood and storm damage reduction projects.
    One example that's personally important to me is something 
that we face in San Francisco, and it's the Embarcadero 
seawall. This is like a street on a ledge that runs right next 
to San Francisco Bay. The Army Corps is currently studying it 
to repair it and reinforce it in conjunction with the port. 
It's right by the Port of San Francisco and near the Oakland-
San Francisco Bridge.
    The seawall protects the entire financial district of San 
Francisco and the tens of thousands of people who work or visit 
in the area every day. The problem is it's over 100 years old 
and it's built on what's known as bay mud, and it's very 
vulnerable to both storm surge and earthquake. If the seawall 
is not rebuilt before the next major storm surge or earthquake, 
the entire Embarcadero and a part of the high-rise financial 
district could be submerged in the bay. People don't talk about 
it, but this appears to be fact.
    This type of investment is increasingly important as our 
country's infrastructure ages, as our populations continue to 
grow, and as weather events grow more severe. In fact, large 
storm systems, called atmospheric rivers, are now responsible 
for as much as 50 percent of California's total annual 
precipitation and 90 percent of its flooding. The Army Corps' 
ongoing effort to study atmospheric rivers will help, we hope, 
better inform decisionmaking when it comes to the operation of 
reservoirs and dams. The use of improved forecasting we hope 
will allow operators to improve flood control and save more 
water from the wet years for the dry years.
    The Bureau of Reclamation has been quite wonderful. It 
plays a vital role in addressing the threat of drought as the 
Federal partner helping to manage the West's most valuable 
resource, which is water.
    California is not currently experiencing drought, but we 
all know too well that the next one could be just around the 
corner. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley Lab project that 
climate change will cause the Sierra snowpack to decline by 54 
percent within the next 20 to 40 years, and by 79 percent by 
the end of the century, and that's our largest source of water, 
the snowpack.
    California needs Reclamation's assistance to modernize our 
infrastructure to adjust to a dramatically reduced snowpack and 
to longer droughts. I want to thank the agencies for stepping 
up to these challenges which impact individuals, their 
families, and all of us. And I just want you to know that any 
ideas you have I would really, really welcome.
    Water and fire are my State's two greatest problems. 
Compared with the fiscal year 2019 enacted bill, the 
administration's budget request represents a more than $2 
billion cut, to the Army Corps' Civil Works program. Mr. 
Chairman, we cannot let that happen. The construction account 
alone suffers a 43-percent cut. Now, this doesn't line up with 
the administration's focus on our Nation's infrastructure or 
the realistic needs of our country. So I look forward to 
working with you, and I know we can find money and make some 
changes here, right?
    Senator Alexander. Right.
    Senator Feinstein. Good. I'll stop right there.
    Now I'd like to turn to the Bureau. As important as the 
Army Corps is nationwide, the Bureau is particularly critical 
to my State given its operation of the Central Valley Project 
and water delivery infrastructure throughout the State. 
Reclamation's request for the Water and Related Resources 
Account, it's $430 million less than what we appropriated last 
year. Nearly half of this cut I understand is attributed to the 
fact that the administration requested none of the $196 million 
we included in last year's bill for implementation of the 
drought-related provisions in a bill that I wrote that we 
passed that became law, which is the water act known as the 
WIIN Act.
    This committee has appropriated a total of $415 million in 
the last 3 fiscal years for the desal recycling and reuse and 
storage projects. Despite a recent transmittal from the Bureau 
that provided a list of projects requiring approval from 
Congress, $259 million of that total still remains unobligated.
    So I urge the Bureau and the administration to recognize 
the significant investment Congress has made in these types of 
projects, which I happen to think are going to be the key to 
developing long-term solutions for extreme weather events.
    Ms. Burman, I look forward to hearing an update on 
Reclamation's plans to allocate the monies we have already 
appropriated.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Feinstein.
    As I mentioned earlier, we have votes starting at 3:00, but 
I think what we'll do is continue with the hearing until about 
3:20 and then go over and vote at the end of the first vote and 
beginning of the second vote and come back and resume.
    We'll now hear opening statements from any Senators who may 
wish to speak.
    Senator Hyde-Smith.

                 STATEMENT OF SENATOR CINDY HYDE-SMITH

    Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm very 
excited to be on this subcommittee and look forward to the 
testimony we are about to hear.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Shaheen.

                  STATEMENT OF SENATOR JEANNE SHAHEEN

    Senator Shaheen. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And I especially want to thank the Army Corps of Engineers, 
Secretary James, for all of the great work that you do, as the 
chairman pointed out in his statement. You get many more 
requests than there is funding for. And Mr. Chairman and 
Senator Feinstein, I hope we will do everything we can to 
support a funding level that is as much as we can, especially 
for small States like New Hampshire, where we have not just 
inland waterways, but we have small subsistence harbors where 
it is always challenging to keep them dredged to keep them 
open, and I know that there are a lot of States like ours where 
we are struggling to find the funding to address the projects. 
So thank you all very much for what you do.
    Senator Alexander. Senator Kennedy.

                   STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHN KENNEDY

    Senator Kennedy. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    I want to echo and join with Senator Shaheen's comments. I 
don't know how you do the job you do. Everybody is always 
pulling on you, and their project is--I mean, nobody ever 
stands up and says, ``I've got a bad project. I need you to 
fund it.'' It's always the best thing that's ever been devised, 
and there's not enough money to go around. I do believe 
Congress is going to adequately fund you.
    I respect the work of OMB, and I think that we don't take 
nearly enough of the good suggestions made by OMB (Office of 
Management and Budget) in terms of how to save money, and I--
but I don't--like anybody else in Congress, I have my own 
opinions. I think the money we spend with the Corps is well 
spent, and I think you do an awful lot with, relatively 
speaking, very little, at least little compared to all of our 
needs.
    You've been great to Louisiana, General, Mr. Secretary, Mr. 
Secretary, and Madam Commissioner. And I just appreciate the 
chance to come plead my State's case with you. And I can't tell 
you what a difference you've made in my State, and I just want 
to thank you for that, and I mean it.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Kennedy.
    Senator Murkowski.

                  STATEMENT OF SENATOR LISA MURKOWSKI

    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And thank you, each of you. I will echo the sentiments of 
appreciation. We do ask a lot of you, we certainly do in my 
State. And we oftentimes are quick to criticize, and the praise 
takes a while, but I think, in fairness, the recognition of the 
extent of the efforts that you all are involved with is truly 
appreciated.
    And I want to acknowledge you, Commissioner Burman. I want 
to thank you and I also want to congratulate you along with 
Senator McSally and all of the Colorado Basin Senators. Getting 
the Colorado River drought project done was a big deal. I think 
it was a historic achievement. I know it's a big, big deal in 
Senator Feinstein's State, and I know a great deal of work went 
into that. So I just thank you for your efforts with that as 
well.
    Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Murkowski.
    Secretary James, let's begin with you. Welcome.

                    SUMMARY STATEMENT OF R.D. JAMES

    Secretary James. Mr. Chairman, I hope the members remember 
those accolades as I'm testifying today.
    [Laughter.]
    Secretary James. Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member 
Feinstein, and distinguished members of this committee, thank 
you for the opportunity to be here today to discuss the fiscal 
year 2020 budget for Civil Works Program of the Army Corps of 
Engineers. I've been on the job for a little over a year, and 
my goal now is the same as it was the day I was sworn in: focus 
on outcomes, not process, in order to get to results.
    Since the beginning of this year, I've had the pleasure to 
meet with almost every member of this subcommittee one-on-one, 
and I appreciate that. We have discussed both your concerns and 
the overall direction of the Corps of Engineers Civil Works. 
The input you provide is very much appreciated, and I remain 
committed to working with each of you.
    I am pleased to be joined by Lieutenant General Todd 
Semonite, the fourth Chief of Engineers for the Army Corps of 
Engineers. I'm grateful for his leadership and the energy he 
brings to our program.
    The fiscal year 2020 budget reflects the administration's 
priority and provides $4.8 billion for the Army Civil Works 
program with a focus on investments that will yield high 
economic environmental returns or address a significant risk to 
public safety. This budget relies on a foundation of strong 
relationships between Congress, the Corps, and local 
communities, which allow us all to work together to help 
manage, develop, restore, and protect water resources.
    The budget reflects the administration's priorities within 
the Corps' main mission areas of flood and coastal storm damage 
reduction, commercial navigation, and aquatic ecosystem 
restoration.
    The budget supports a Corps program that has a diverse set 
of tools and approaches to working with local communities, 
whether this means funding projects with our cost-sharing 
partners, providing planning assistance and technical expertise 
to help communities make better informed decisions, or 
participating in the national and international conversations 
on how to best address our water resource challenges.
    The budget helps us maintain and improve our efforts on 
resiliency and sustainability, one of the challenges associated 
with the ways that we have used our water resources.
    The budget also focuses on maintaining the vast water 
resource infrastructure that the Corps owns and manages and on 
funding innovative ways to rehabilitate or expand as necessary.
    I've been watching closely the flooding we've been 
experiencing in the Midwest and in the South. As always, the 
Army Corps of Engineers is working with local communities to 
protect life and property. We will be there to help with the 
recovery.
    Our citizens along the Missouri River have experienced the 
wettest conditions in 124 years. The folks that live along the 
Lower Mississippi River are experiencing a top two or three 
all-time flood event. Flooding like this further underscores 
the importance of investment in critical infrastructure 
projects. A little over a week ago, I had the opportunity to 
tour much of these impacted flooded areas, and still receiving 
daily briefings from Corps personnel.
    The fiscal year 2020 construction program includes a total 
of $1.3 billion. This includes funding for nine commercial 
navigation projects, five aquatic ecosystem restoration 
projects and programs, and four flood risk management projects. 
The construction program uses objective performance-based 
guidelines to allocate funding toward the highest performing 
economic, environmental, and public safety investments. Four 
construction projects are funded to completion in the fiscal 
year 2020 budget. There are three commercial navigation 
projects--Charleston Harbor, Monongahela Lock and Dams, Melvin 
Price Lock and Dam--and one aquatic ecosystem restoration 
project, Mud Mountain in Virginia.
    There are many more details regarding the fiscal year 2020 
budget that I've submitted for the record as part of my 
official testimony.
    Since receiving my appointment to BASA, I've had one 
mission, moving dirt. The intention is to start, continue, and 
finish projects in a more timely and efficient way to ensure a 
better return on the taxpayers' investments and to better the 
lives of Americans. We are working to refine our approaches so 
that we can optimize funding and allow the United States to 
appreciate all the benefits the Corps of Engineers has to 
offer.
    Under my oversight and direction, and with the help of 
General Semonite and his team, the Corps of Engineers Civil 
Works program is taking bold actions to improve performance and 
engineer solutions for the Nation's toughest challenges.
    I am committed to ensuring the United States Army Corps of 
Engineers does what they do better than any other organization 
in the world: design and build infrastructure projects, 
projects that protect lives, improve commerce, and benefit all 
Americans.
    Thank you for having me there today. And I look forward to 
your questions.
    [The statement follows:]
                    Prepared Statement of R.D. James
    Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Feinstein, and distinguished 
members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here 
today to discuss the President's Budget for the Civil Works program of 
the Army Corps of Engineers.
    The fiscal year 2020 Budget provides over $4.8 billion for the Army 
Civil Works program, with a focus on investments that will yield high 
economic and environmental returns or address a significant risk to 
public safety. This Budget relies on a foundation of strong 
relationships between the Corps and local communities, which allow us 
to work together to help manage, develop, restore, and protect their 
water resources. The Budget focuses on the highest performing work 
within the three main missions of the Corps:
  --commercial navigation,
  --flood and coastal storm damage reduction, and
  --aquatic ecosystem restoration.
    The fiscal year 2020 Budget includes approximately $2.4 billion for 
the study, design, construction, operation and maintenance of inland 
and coastal navigation projects. The Budget gives priority to coastal 
harbors and inland waterways with the most commercial traffic. It also 
provides for the maintenance of channels at small ports, with emphasis 
on those that support significant commercial fishing, subsistence, or 
public transportation benefits.
    The Flood Risk Management program is funded at approximately $1.2 
billion in the Budget and includes funding to provide technical and 
planning assistance to local communities to enable them to understand 
and to better manage their flood risks. The Budget assists these local 
efforts, with emphasis on non-structural approaches.
    The Budget provides $187 million to restore several large 
ecosystems that have been a focus of interagency collaboration and to 
support restoring aquatic habitat in ecosystems where the aquatic 
ecosystem structure, function, and processes have degraded.
    These investments will enable communities to facilitate waterborne 
transportation, reduce their flood risk, and restore significant 
aquatic ecosystems.
    The Budget supports a Corps program that has a diverse set of tools 
and approaches to working with local communities, whether this means 
funding projects with our cost-sharing partners, providing planning 
assistance and technical expertise to help communities make better 
informed decisions, or participating in the national and international 
conversations on how to best address our water resources challenges. 
The Budget helps us maintain and improve our efforts on resiliency and 
sustainability--one of the challenges associated with the ways that we 
have used our water resources.
    The Budget also focuses on maintaining the vast water resources 
infrastructure that the Corps owns and manages and on finding 
innovative ways to rehabilitate it or hand it over to others.
    These goals will be met by funding capital investment in the inland 
waterways, and reforming the way that we finance these investments. Our 
proposal includes establishing an annual fee that will support 
infrastructure investment and economic growth by helping finance the 
users' share of future capital investment, as well as 10 percent of the 
operation and maintenance cost, associated with these waterways. The 
Budget once again proposes to divest the Washington Aqueduct, which is 
the wholesale water supply system for Washington, D.C.; Arlington 
County, Virginia; the City of Falls Church, Virginia; and parts of 
Fairfax County, Virginia.
    The Budget proposes revisions to the appropriations language for 
the Construction, Operation and Maintenance, and Mississippi River and 
Tributaries accounts and the Harbor Maintenance and Inland Waterways 
Trust Funds to enable greater transparency and accountability in how 
these funds are budgeted and spent. The Press Book, which you have 
before you, reflects this by displaying the total account and project 
funding levels derived from each of these trust funds.
    The Budget promotes increased non-Federal participation in the 
construction of Civil Works projects to improve project delivery and to 
increase cost savings. It includes $150 million in the Construction 
account for the WRRDA 2014 Section 1043 Non-Federal Construction of 
Federal Projects program. The Corps would transfer this funding to non-
Federal sponsors who have decided to construct an authorized project on 
their own under Section 1043 of WRRDA 2014, as amended. The Budget also 
proposes to extend this program's authorization, which currently 
expires on June 10, 2019. The Budget also provides $150 million in the 
Construction account for the Innovative Funding Partnerships program. 
These funds would be used, in conjunction with funds voluntarily 
provided by non-Federal interests in excess of the non-Federal 
sponsor's statutory cost share requirements, to accelerate the 
completion of construction of authorized projects.
    In addition, the budget proposes to return responsibility for 
management of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program 
(FUSRAP) back to the Department of Energy. The Army Corps would 
continue to perform cleanup of FUSRAP sites on a reimbursable basis 
with DOE. Consolidation of FUSRAP with
    the other DOE Federal cleanup programs under a single agency will 
allow DOE to consider a broader range of Federal cleanup 
responsibilities in prioritizing work each fiscal year and result in 
efficiencies for taxpayers.
    The fiscal year 2020 Investigations program is funded at $82 
million in the Budget, including $5 million from the Mississippi River 
and Tributaries (MR&T) account, of which $26 million is to fund studies 
to determine the need, engineering feasibility, and economic, 
environmental and social return of potential solutions for water and 
related land resources problems.
    The Investigations account includes funding to complete one 
preconstruction engineering and design (Mobile Harbor, AL), and three 
dredged material management plans (Buffalo Harbor, NY, Cleveland 
Harbor, OH and Corpus Christi Ship Channel, TX).
    The fiscal year 2020 Construction program includes a total of $1.3 
billion. This includes funding for nine commercial navigation projects, 
five aquatic ecosystem restoration projects and programs, and four 
flood risk management projects. The construction program uses 
objective, performance-based guidelines to allocate funding toward the 
highest performing economic, environmental, and public safety 
investments.
    Four construction projects are funded to completion in the fiscal 
year 2020 Budget. They include three commercial navigation projects--
Charleston Harbor, SC; Locks and Dams 2, 3 and 4, Monongahela River, 
PA; and Melvin Price Lock and Dam, IL & MO; and one aquatic ecosystem 
restoration project--Mud Mountain Dam, WA.
    The fiscal year 2020 O&M program is funded at $3 billion. For O&M, 
the Budget emphasizes performance of existing projects by focusing on 
those coastal harbors and inland waterways with the most commercial 
traffic. The allocation of funding for maintenance among projects 
reflects a risk-informed approach that considers both project and 
project component conditions and the potential consequences of a 
failure. The Budget also makes important investments in the O&M program 
to promote the sustainable management of the lands around Corps 
facilities, by providing funds to update the plans that govern how we 
manage our facilities and helping to combat invasive species.
    The Budget proposes to derive $965 million from the Harbor 
Maintenance Trust Fund to maintain coastal channels and related work, 
and $55.5 million from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund to complete the 
Locks and Dams 2, 3, and 4, project on the Lower Monongahela River.
    The fiscal year 2020 Regulatory Program is funded at $200 million 
to protect the Nation's waters and wetlands and provide efficiency in 
permit processing.
    Lastly, the Budget provides a total of $32 million for the 
Emergency Management program, a robust level of funding to help ensure 
that our people are properly trained and equipped, so that they will be 
able to help communities respond to a flood or other disaster.
    Thank you all for inviting me here today. I look forward to your 
questions.

    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Mr. Secretary.
    It looks like the vote just started, so we should have time 
to hear all four of you before we have the recess.
    General Semonite, welcome.
STATEMENT OF LIEUTENANT GENERAL TODD T. SEMONITE, 
            COMMANDING GENERAL AND CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, 
            ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS
    General Semonite. Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member 
Feinstein, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank 
you for the opportunity to testify today.
    I am glad to be appearing with the Honorable R.D. James as 
we both continue to work together to address water resource 
challenges across the Nation.
    The fiscal year 2020 Civil Works budget is a performance-
based budget which will reduce flood risk in communities across 
the Nation, facilitate commercial navigation, restore aquatic 
ecosystems, and generate low-cost renewable hydropower. The 
budget uses a targeted approach to invest in our water 
resources and focuses on high-performing projects and programs 
within the three main water resource missions of the Corps: 
commercial navigation, flood and storm damage reduction, and 
aquatic ecosystem restoration.
    The budget includes $4.827 billion in close discretionary 
funding for Civil Works activities, which will benefit the 
Nation's economy, the environment, and public safety now and in 
the future. The fiscal year 2020 budget represents a continuing 
fiscally prudent investment in the Nation's water resource 
infrastructure and restoration of aquatic ecosystems.
    Since Congress first authorized our navigation mission in 
1824, the Corps has worked hard to develop and implement 
solutions to our Nation's water resource challenges. We're able 
to do this because we have a world-class workforce of talented 
and dedicated professionals who are absolutely passionate about 
what they do. None of our work is done alone, and we appreciate 
and value the support of the administration, the Congress, and 
all of our partners to succeed in this mission. I am very proud 
of the work we do; however, we can and must revolutionize the 
Corps.
    I've been in command for the Corps for close to 3 years, 
and I've challenged the enterprise to revolutionize the way we 
do business. This does not imply that the Corps is not a world-
class organization, but, rather, it demands that we anticipate 
and respond to changing requirements and externalities like all 
world-class organizations. We embrace our authorities and our 
current mission areas as a guide to how to change to do 
business with a strategic vision, taking pioneer steps to 
remain relevant and ready for the challenges of tomorrow.
    Successful Civil Works project delivery means the Nation's 
current and future investment priorities. The Corps' 
credibility is measured by our ability to deliver results that 
are on time, on budget, and of exceptional quality. The Corps 
has taken bold actions to improve performance and to engineer 
solutions for the Nation's toughest challenges. These actions 
are realized through modernizing the traditional delivery of 
the annual Civil Works program with innovative tools, 
streamlining internal processes, and exploring alternative 
financing approaches.
    The effort to revolutionize Civil Works focuses on three 
primary objectives: accelerating project delivery, transforming 
project financing and budgeting, and improving permitting and 
regulation reform.
    The first objective, accelerating project delivery, focuses 
on innovative ways to deliver high-quality outcomes as a top 
Corps priority. Through looking internally at our 
organizations, we are identifying policy and administrative 
changes that can increase the efficiency and effectiveness of 
infrastructure delivery. We believe that risk-informed 
decisionmaking should be implemented and documented without 
being subject to numerous time-consuming reviews.
    Our second objective is alternative financing. Fiscal 
responsibility and constraints demand that we utilize 
innovative approaches and mechanisms, which allow for 
accelerated project execution and earlier realization of 
benefits, which increase efficiency and effectiveness.
    Finally, our third objective is to improve our permitting 
process. Through Executive Order 13807, we have adopted the one 
Federal decision and are coordinating our processes to comply 
with NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) and other 
environmental laws. Our goal is to simplify the process for 
gaining infrastructure permits while protecting the environment 
in accordance with the law. In the regulatory program, we 
continue to streamline permit process where modifications to 
existing the USACE (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) structures 
are concerned, we have reduced pending permits by as much as 50 
percent in the last year.
    For more than 243 years, USACE has adapted to be able to 
meet the challenges of the day. Today is no exception. Our 
current efforts to revolutionize USACE simply represent the 
next chapter in this remarkable journey. We have produced a 
revolutionized Civil Works brochure that summarizes some of 
these efforts that I have just covered, and I look forward to 
briefing you individually on our action plan how we are going 
to execute those initiatives.
    Thank you, Chairman and members of this subcommittee. This 
concludes my statement. I look forward to answering any 
questions you or other members of the subcommittee may have.
    Thank you.
    [The statement follows:]
       Prepared Statement of Lieutenant General Todd T. Semonite
    Mister Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee:
    I am honored to testify before your committee today, along with the 
Honorable R.D. James, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil 
Works, on the President's Fiscal Year 2020 Budget for the United States 
Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Civil Works Program.
    I have been in command of the Corps for close to 3 years, and I 
want to briefly update you on where we are going. As I said last year, 
the Corps' credibility is measured by our ability to deliver results 
that are on time, on budget, and of exceptional quality. Focusing on 
innovative ways to deliver high quality outcomes sooner is a top Corps 
priority.
    The Corps is taking bold actions to improve performance and 
engineer solutions for the Nation's toughest water resources 
challenges. We continue to work on policy and administrative changes 
that can improve the way that we plan, design, construct, and operate 
and maintain our projects. Through looking internally at our 
organization, authorities, policies, regulations and procedures we are 
increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
    The effort to revolutionize the Civil Works program focuses on 
accelerating project delivery, transforming project financing and 
budgeting, and permitting and regulation reform. We are applying risk-
informed decisionmaking to the entire project life, and working to 
provide non-Federal sponsors with tools to enable the successful 
completion of authorized studies and construction.The fiscal year 2020 
Budget seeks to transform project financing by proposing two new, 
innovative construction programs in the fiscal year 2020 Budget. In the 
Regulatory program we continue to streamline permit processes, this 
includes efforts to reduce redundancy and delegate authority for 
decisionmaking to the most practical and appropriate level.
    The Corps focuses on work that provides the highest economic, 
environmental, and public safety returns to the Nation. The Corps also 
operates and maintains water resources infrastructure that may no 
longer meet its authorized purposes or for which the needs of the 
Nation have changed. There are six studies funded in the fiscal year 
2020 Budget to ascertain the viability of deauthorizing projects and 
removing them from the Corps inventory.
    The Corps' Military program also continues our work across the 
globe with presence in more than 110 countries supporting national 
security and our Combatant Commanders with civil works, military 
missions, and water resources research and development expertise.
                   summary of fiscal year 2020 budget
    The fiscal year 2020 Civil Works Budget is a performance-based 
budget, focused on reducing flood risk in communities across the 
Nation, facilitating commercial navigation, restoring aquatic 
ecosystems, and generating low-cost renewable hydropower. The Budget 
uses a targeted approach to investment in our water resources, which 
will benefit the Nation's economy, environment, and public safety--now 
and in the future.
    The Budget focuses on high-performing projects and programs within 
the three main water resources missions of the Corps: commercial 
navigation, flood and storm damage reduction, and aquatic ecosystem 
restoration. The Budget includes $4.827 billion in discretionary 
funding for Civil Works activities throughout the Nation.
    The Budget also proposes the necessary level of funding for the 
Regulatory program to protect and preserve water-related resources of 
the Nation.
                         investigations program
    The fiscal year 2020 Budget provides $77 million in the 
Investigations account, and $4.96 million in the Mississippi River and 
Tributaries account to evaluate and design projects within the Corps 
three main mission areas and for related work, including research and 
development. The Budget also supports the Corps planning and technical 
assistance programs, including using its expertise to help local 
communities increase their resilience to, and preparedness for, flood 
risks.
                          construction program
    The Budget provides $1.301 billion for the construction program, 
including $1.170 billion in the Construction account, $56.8 million in 
the Mississippi River and Tributaries account, $55.5 million in the 
Inland Waterways Trust Fund account and $18.3 million in the Harbor 
Maintenance Trust Fund account.
    The Budget funds two new, innovative programs in the Construction 
account:
  --$150 million for the WRRDA 2014 Section 1043 Non-Federal 
        Construction of Federal Projects program, under which the Corps 
        would transfer appropriated funds to non-Federal sponsors who 
        decide to construct a project on their own. This approach will 
        improve project delivery and achieve cost savings; and
  --$150 million for the Innovative Funding Partnerships program, which 
        would be used in conjunction with funds voluntarily provided by 
        non-Federal interests in excess of the non-Federal cost share 
        to accelerate the completion of construction of specifically 
        authorized projects.
    In addition, the Budget proposes to extend the authorization for 
Section 1043 of the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014, 
as amended, which under current law expires on June 10, 2019.
    The goal of the construction program is to produce as much value as 
possible for the Nation from the available funds. Projects funded 
primarily due to their economic return, require a benefit-to-cost ratio 
of 2.5-to-1 or higher, calculated at a 7-percent discount rate. 
Projects funded on the basis of their environmental return must 
demonstrate that they will restore degraded ecosystem structure, 
function and/or process to a more natural condition. Ongoing projects 
that can complete all remaining construction work during the budget 
year or the following year may be funded at the level needed to 
complete that work if the project has a BCR of 1.0-to-1 or above, at a 
7-percent discount rate. Funding is also prioritized for mitigation 
work at ongoing construction projects, and work needed to comply with 
biological opinions and with treaties. The selection process 
prioritizes investments, on a risk informed basis, in dam safety 
assurance, seepage control, and static instability correction work at 
dams that the Corps owns and operates, and work to address significant 
risk to human safety, as well as construction of dredged material 
disposal facilities for high and moderate use segments of commercial 
deep- draft, shallow-draft, and inland waterways projects.
                operation and maintenance (o&m) program
    All structures age and can deteriorate over time, causing a 
potential decline in reliability. As stewards of a large portfolio of 
water resources projects, we are working to sustain the benefits that 
the key features of this infrastructure provide.
    The Corps continues to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of 
its operation and maintenance program. The Budget focuses on 
investments that address infrastructure maintenance needs on a risk 
informed basis. It invests in the highest priority needs among the 
infrastructure that the Corps owns and operates, and in work that will 
reduce long-term O&M costs in real terms.
    The Budget for the operation and maintenance program provides $1.93 
billion in the O&M account, $148.1 million in the Mississippi River and 
Tributaries account, and $946.7 million in the Harbor Maintenance 
account. The allocation of funding for maintenance among projects 
reflects a risk-informed assessment that considers both project and 
project component conditions as well as the consequences in the event 
of a failure.
    Generally, the O&M program supports completed works owned or 
operated by the Corps, including administrative buildings and 
laboratories. Work to be accomplished includes: operation of locks and 
dams along the inland waterways; dredging of inland and coastal Federal 
channels; operating multi-purpose dams and reservoirs for flood risk 
reduction, hydropower, recreation, and related purposes; maintenance 
and repair of facilities; monitoring of completed projects; and general 
management of Corps facilities and the land associated with these 
purposes including work to serve as a responsible steward of the 
natural resources on Corps lands.
    Typically, the concerns that lead to dam safety modifications and/
or interim risk reduction measures first become apparent through the 
inspections and monitoring that the O&M program funds. Additional 
measures are considered and evaluated as new and existing issues are 
identified.
    The fiscal year 2020 Budget provides $214 million in the O&M 
account for hydropower activities to maintain power components such as 
generators, turbines, transformers and circuit breakers at Corps 
hydropower facilities and keep them operating efficiently and 
effectively. The Corps also receives approximately $275 million each 
year derived from Department of Energy revenues related to power sales, 
and from contributed funds.
    The Corps is the largest hydropower producer in the U.S., operating 
24 percent of the Nation's hydropower capacity.
                         navigation trust funds
    The Budget reproposes revisions to the appropriations language for 
the Construction, Operations and Maintenance, and Mississippi River and 
Tributaries accounts and new appropriations language for the Harbor 
Maintenance and the Inland Waterways Trust Funds. This language would 
provide greater transparency to the public in how these funds are 
spent, including the users that pay fees to finance some of the Trust 
Funds costs, improve accountability, and ensure that appropriations are 
used for the purposes for which the Congress intended. Specifically, 
the proposal would make trust fund amounts definite and executed out of 
the trust funds rather than transferring them to the expenditure 
accounts for execution. Doing so will simply clarify the accounting for 
expenditure of funds from each account. The Corps has developed an 
interim solution to help with the financial management of these funds, 
but the revised appropriations language will enable the Corps to manage 
these resources more easily.
                          reimbursable program
    Through the Interagency and International Services (IIS) 
Reimbursable Program, the Corps assists other Federal agencies, State, 
local, Tribal governments, and those of other countries with timely, 
cost-effective solutions. These agencies can turn to the Corps, which 
already has these capabilities, rather than develop their own internal 
workforce and expertise to act as their design and construction agent. 
Such intergovernmental cooperation is effective for agencies and the 
taxpayer, and uses the skills and talents that we bring from our Civil 
Works and Military Missions programs.
    The work is principally technical oversight and management of 
engineering, environmental, and construction projects. The work itself 
is typically performed by private sector firms and is financed by the 
agencies we service. We only accept agency requests that are consistent 
with our core technical expertise, in the national interest, and that 
can be executed without impacting our primary mission areas.
                          emergency management
    The fiscal year 2020 Budget provides $27 million in funding for the 
Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies account to enable the Corps to 
prepare for emergency operations in response to natural disasters. The 
Budget for the emergency management program also includes $4.5 million 
for the National Emergency Preparedness Program.
                  approaches to flood risk management
    The Investigations account also includes $25 million for Corps 
efforts, in conjunction with State floodplain management authorities, 
to provide technical and planning assistance to enable local 
communities to reduce their flood risk, with emphasis on non- 
structural approaches. The Budget continues to invest in the 
interagency teams known as Silver Jackets, which work to enable 
communities to understand their flood risks and to develop and 
implement their own non-structural flood risk management solutions.
    The Silver Jackets program is an innovative program, which provides 
a way in each of the participating States to address State and local 
flood risk management priorities. The Corps participates in these 
efforts, along with FEMA, other Federal agencies, and the State 
agencies with expertise in flood risk management. The Budget for the 
Civil Works program funds the Corps staff work on these teams. Each 
team is developed at the State level. The teams share lessons learned 
at the State level with each other, and each team works to apply the 
available resources effectively to meet its State's flood risk 
management priorities. These intergovernmental flood risk management 
teams are now active in nearly every State.
                               conclusion
    The fiscal year 2020 Budget represents a continuing, fiscally 
prudent investment in the Nation's water resources infrastructure and 
restoration of aquatic ecosystems. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is 
committed to a performance-based Civil Works Program, based on 
innovative, resilient, and sustainable risk-informed solutions.
    Thank you, Mister Chairman and Members of Subcommittee. This 
concludes my statement. I look forward to answering any questions you 
or other Members of the Subcommittee may have.

    Senator Alexander. Thank you, General Semonite. And I would 
say we'll include--to the extent you have additional 
statements, we'll include those in the record.
    Commissioner Burman, welcome.

                       DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR


                         Bureau of Reclamation

STATEMENT OF BRENDA BURMAN, COMMISSIONER
    Commissioner Burman. Thank you, Chairman Alexander, Ranking 
Member Feinstein, and members of the subcommittee for the 
opportunity to discuss with you the President's budget for the 
Bureau of Reclamation. I am Brenda Burman. I have served as 
Commissioner of Reclamation since being confirmed in 2017.
    Before I begin, I would like to thank the committee for 
making the very timely passage of our bill a priority for 
fiscal year 2019. Having full funding at the beginning of the 
year has made a profound difference in Reclamation's ability to 
fulfill our mission with the resources Congress intended for 
that purpose.
    I wanted to take a second to talk about hydrology. And we 
included a map, if you have it at your desks. So this is a map 
of this year of the hydrology in the West and Alaska. And what 
a difference a year makes because if you had looked at this map 
last year when we brought it to the subcommittee, the bottom 
half of the United States was red--New Mexico, Arizona, 
Colorado, Utah--bright red. We were in very dire straits 
hydrologically speaking. And this is the background that 
Reclamation works in.
    California last year was very dry right up until March, and 
then we managed to catch up into an average year. But this is 
one of those years except for small locations up in Washington 
where we can take a breath, where we can focus down on some of 
our other issues. And this--I just wanted this as a reminder of 
where we work and that every year we are responding to Mother 
Nature in what we do.
    As for this hearing, my goal is to testify to the strength 
and purpose of Reclamation's fiscal year 2020 budget, a budget 
that continues to address water supply challenges in the West. 
Our goal remains to ensure water reliability and the efficient 
generation of energy, to celebrate America's recreational 
opportunities, and to uphold our commitments to Tribal nations 
and to the environment. The 2020 budget prioritizes these 
functions and fully supports Reclamation's vital role out West.
    Our budget emphasizes the following principles.
    First, water reliability. Reclamation recognizes the 
importance of maintaining water supplies that would withstand 
future drought conditions. Moreover, we recognize the 
importance of securing and modernizing all of our dams and 
water projects, particularly any that rely on aging 
infrastructure.
    Second, efficient energy generation. As the Nation's second 
largest producer of hydroelectric power, Reclamation's projects 
and programs continue to strongly support economic growth and 
opportunity.
    Third, providing multipurpose recreation access.
    And, fourth, our mission of conservation. Reclamation 
strives to ensure future water delivery and power generation 
through the responsible use and conservation of its resources.
    With that said, I'd like to take a moment to highlight and 
discuss the challenges Reclamation faces in each of our western 
regions as well as the role of the President's budget in 
addressing those issues.
    In the Upper Colorado Basin, represented in part by Senator 
Udall, the Bureau of Reclamation continues to seek and 
implement mutually beneficial Tribal settlements that avoid 
expensive and contentious litigation. For fiscal year 2020, we 
are requesting funding for the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply 
Project and the Aamodt litigation settlement.
    In the Lower Colorado Basin, home to Hoover Dam, the 
priority remains protecting against and mitigating the effects 
of a 19-year-long drought on the Colorado River that has 
significantly diminished water storage in Lake Mead. Over 75 
percent of this region's budget is either, paid for directly by 
our partners or through the sale of hydropower generation.
    The California Great Basin, represented in part by Senator 
Feinstein, has suffered from its own unique set of drought-
related problems. Good hydrology this year has highlighted the 
importance of maintaining Reclamation's infrastructure. The 
region works with a diverse group of stakeholders to implement 
water management solutions. In the Missouri Basin and also Rio 
Grande and Texas Gulf regions, home to Senators Tester and 
Hoeven, the Bureau of Reclamation continues to collaborate with 
our stakeholders to manage, develop, and protect resources 
throughout the area. We are also requesting funding for both 
the Crow and Blackfeet Indian Water Rights Settlements as well 
as rural water projects in North Dakota and Montana. Further, 
Reclamation is coordinating with numerous local and State 
entities to improve drought resiliency and better prepare 
American communities for future water needs.
    Finally, we have the Columbia-Pacific Northwest Region, 
home to Senators Murray and Merkley. This region is home to 
Grand Coulee Dam, one of the largest hydropower facilities in 
the world. Our focus here remains on ensuring reliable and 
environmentally sound water and energy delivery. To this end, 
we are also committed to phased development of the Odessa 
Groundwater Replacement Project.
    In closing, the Bureau of Reclamation and this 
administration remain committed to addressing the water and 
energy needs of the West in an environmentally and economically 
sound manner for the American people. 2020 promises to be a 
critical year, and we continue to appreciate your unflagging 
support of our mission.
    Thank you.
    [The statement follows:]
                  Prepared Statement of Brenda Burman
    Thank you, Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Feinstein, and 
members of the Subcommittee for the opportunity to discuss with you the 
President's fiscal year 2020 Budget for the Bureau of Reclamation. I am 
Brenda Burman, Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation.
    The Bureau of Reclamation's fiscal year 2020 Budget provides the 
foundation to support Reclamation's mission to manage, develop, and 
protect water and related resources in an environmentally and 
economically sound manner in the interest of the American public. The 
fiscal year 2020 Budget supports the Administration's and Department of 
the Interior's (Department) goals to provide secure, reliable water 
supplies for irrigation, people, and the environment; ensure the 
efficient generation of energy to meet our economic needs; ensure 
outdoor recreation opportunities; and fulfill our commitments to tribal 
nations. To be successful in achieving these results, Reclamation will 
continue to work with a wide range of stakeholders, including water and 
power customers, Tribes, State and local officials, conservation 
organizations, and others.
    In fulfilling these Department priorities, the fiscal year 2020 
Budget promotes economic prosperity in the West and ensures that the 
Nation's natural resources are used for multiple, beneficial purposes. 
Reclamation will continue to deliver water and generate hydropower in 
fiscal year 2020, consistent with applicable State and Federal law. 
Reclamation plans to focus on enhancing water supply reliability by 
paying attention to local water conflicts, making investments in 
modernizing infrastructure, and providing support for water development 
benefiting Native Americans and rural America. The 2020 Budget 
addresses these priorities by allocating funds to implement 
Reclamation's management responsibilities in the most cost-effective 
manner.
    Reclamation is requesting $1.1 billion in Federal discretionary 
appropriations, which is anticipated to be supplemented by over $1.0 
billion in other Federal and non-Federal funds in fiscal year 2020. Of 
the total discretionary appropriations, $962.0 million is for the Water 
and Related Resources account, which is Reclamation's largest account; 
$60.0 million is for the Policy and Administration account; and $33.0 
million is for the California Bay Delta Restoration account. A total of 
$54.8million is requested for the Central Valley Project Restoration 
Fund, to be offset by expected discretionary receipts in the same 
amount. We will continue to seek to optimize non-Federal contributions 
to accomplish more with limited Federal dollars.
    Reclamation is the largest supplier and manager of water in the 
Nation and the second largest producer of hydroelectric power. 
Reclamation's projects and programs are foundational to driving and 
maintaining economic growth in hundreds of basins throughout the United 
States. Reclamation manages water for agricultural, municipal and 
industrial use, and provides flood control and recreation for millions 
of people. This includes water for 1 out of 5 (or, 140,000) Western 
farmers irrigating more than 10 million acres of farmland, which yields 
approximately 25 percent of the Nation's fruit and nut crops, and 60 
percent of the vegetable harvest. We deliver 10 trillion gallons of 
water to more than 31 million people each year.
    With respect to hydropower, Reclamation owns 76 hydroelectric power 
plants, of which it operates 53, that account for 15 percent of the 
hydroelectric capacity and generation in the United States. Annually, 
Reclamation generates on average 40 billion kilowatt hours of 
electricity, enough to meet the annual needs of over 3.8 million 
households and collects over $1.0 billion in gross power revenues for 
the Federal Government.
    Many Reclamation projects provide multi-purpose water resource 
benefits, including recreation. Reclamation's recreation areas 
represent some of the most popular areas for water-based outdoor 
recreation activities in the Nation. Reclamation projects include 
approximately 7.8 million acres of land and water and 289 recreation 
and wildlife areas (42 of which are directly managed by Reclamation), 
550 campgrounds and over 1,300 miles of hiking trails available to the 
public resulting in approximately 34 million visits annually.
    According to the Department of the Interior's Economic Report 
fiscal year 2017, Reclamation's activities support nearly $62.6 billion 
in economic activity annually, and support approximately 458,000 jobs.
    Reclamation has several major issues and areas of focus requiring 
considerable attention in the past year to which I would like to bring 
your attention. These include Reclamation's infrastructure, and dam 
safety; the Colorado River and the effects of the long-term drought; 
and California water and power reliability.
    Reclamation's dams and reservoirs, water conveyance systems, and 
power generating facilities are integral components of the Nation's 
infrastructure. This infrastructure is key to Reclamation's continued 
success. We operate 492 dams throughout the 17 Western States, 
impounding 338 reservoirs with a total storage capacity of 140 million 
acre-feet. Approximately 50 percent of Reclamation's dams were built 
between 1900 and 1950, and approximately 90 percent of the dams were 
built before adoption of currently used, state-of-the-art design and 
construction practices. Effectively managing the modernization of this 
infrastructure and the benefits that these structures provide is among 
the significant challenges facing Reclamation in the next several 
years. The reliability, safety, efficiency, and cost effectiveness of 
Reclamation's infrastructure to ensure water deliveries and power 
generation is a high priority. The fiscal year 2020 Budget proposes an 
increase in funding for extraordinary maintenance, including dam 
safety, to modernize infrastructure.
    The Department and Reclamation have worked continuously over the 
past several years with the Colorado River Basin States, key water 
districts, non-governmental organizations and Tribes to develop Drought 
Contingency Plans (DCPs) that provide a framework to reduce the risk of 
Lake Powell and Lake Mead reaching critically low elevations. Two weeks 
ago, I testified regarding the DCPs to the Senate Committee on Energy 
and Natural Resources Committee
    Subcommittee on Water and Power and the House Natural Resources 
Committee Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife--along with 
Governors' representatives of the seven basin States. Together, we 
presented a testament to the collaborative process. Given the ongoing 
19-year period of drought, Lake Powell and Mead's combined storage sits 
today at 40 percent, which is the lowest level since 1966 when Lake 
Powell was initially filling and reducing downstream water deliveries. 
Lake Mead projections show that shortage conditions could be declared 
as early as 2021. There is real risk of further rapid declines in 
reservoir elevations, particularly at Lake Mead, in the very near 
future. As they are implemented, the DCPs will result in water demand 
reduction and water management flexibility through 2026 to help protect 
critical elevations in Lake Mead and Lake Powell.
    In California, great progress has been made to help balance the 
needs of farms, cities and the environment. Reclamation renegotiated 
critical water operational agreements with the State of California that 
will help balance the share of contributions toward environmental flows 
between the State Water Project (SWP) and Reclamation's Central Valley 
Project. In addition to updating this critical operational agreement, 
Reclamation and partners made progress toward voluntary agreements that 
help provide water and habitat for fish and wildlife in the Sacramento- 
San Joaquin river basins, while finding reasonable solutions to 
mitigate impacts to farms and cities that contribute to increased 
environmental flows. The progress made in 2018 and early 2019 toward 
voluntary agreements may be the building blocks of solutions that 
strike a balance between farms, cities and the environment as Central 
Valley stakeholders continue to work towards a sensible solution.
    Reclamation continues to prioritize hydropower as a core mission 
component that not only adds value to the western grid and economy, but 
helps allow for the delivery of reliable and cost- effective water 
supplies across the West. Reclamation's hydropower has a long history 
of success, and that success is a result of partnership and investment 
with our power customers. Reclamation continues to evaluate economical 
capital upgrades at our hydropower facilities; we partner with WAPA, 
BPA and power customers to fund them. An example of Reclamation-wide 
actions is the deployment of hydropower optimization software, which 
has shown efficiency gains of almost 1 percent without any capital 
upgrades. Reclamation's efforts to improve efficiencies and capacity 
resulted in an increase of generating capacity by more than 45 MW 
between 2016 and 2018.
    Changing demographics and competing demands are increasingly 
impacting already strained systems. Water management, improving and 
modernizing infrastructure, using sound science to support critical 
decisionmaking, finding opportunities to expand capacity, reducing 
conflict, and meeting environmental responsibilities were all addressed 
in the formulation of the fiscal year 2020 budget. Reclamation 
continues to use appropriated resources to address challenges faced in 
water resources management and to improve the way it does business.
Account Level Details
    The fiscal year 2020 budget allocates funds to projects and 
programs based on objective, performance- based criteria to most 
effectively implement Reclamation's programs and its management 
responsibilities for its water and power infrastructure in the West.
    Following is additional information on the fiscal year 2020 Budget 
for Reclamation by appropriations account.
               water and related resources--$962,000,000
    The fiscal year 2020 Budget for Water and Related Resources 
provides funding for five major program activities--Water and Energy 
Management and Development ($249.8 million), Land Management and 
Development ($43.0 million), Fish and Wildlife Management and 
Development ($141.9 million), Facility Operations ($297.3 million), and 
Facility Maintenance and Rehabilitation ($230.0 million). The funding 
proposed in Reclamation's fiscal year 2020 Budget supports key programs 
important to the Department and in line with Administration objectives.
    Reclamation's Dam Safety Program has identified 363 high and 
significant hazard dams. Through constant monitoring and assessment, 
Reclamation strives to achieve the best use of its limited resources to 
ensure public safety and to maintain our ability to store and divert 
water and to generate hydropower. Our Dam Safety Program utilizes the 
latest information and technology to evaluate and address the most 
pressing safety risks. The program helps ensure the safety and 
reliability of Reclamation dams to protect the downstream public. 
Reclamation evaluates dams and monitors performance to ensure that 
risks do not exceed current Reclamation public protection guidelines. 
The Dam Safety Program continues to be one of Reclamation's highest 
priorities. The fiscal year 2020 budget request includes $92.8 million 
for the Dam Safety Program.
    The proposed budget also includes appropriations for specific 
projects for Extraordinary Maintenance (XM) activities across 
Reclamation. This request is central to mission objectives of operating 
and maintaining projects to ensure delivery of water and power 
benefits. Reclamation's XM request is part of its overall Asset 
Management Strategy that relies on condition assessments, condition/
performance metrics, technological research and deployment, and 
strategic collaboration to better inform and improve the management of 
its assets and deal with its infrastructure maintenance challenges. The 
fiscal year 2020 budget includes $114.1 million for XM related 
activity. Additional XM items are directly funded by revenues, 
customers, or other Federal agencies (e.g., Bonneville Power 
Administration).
    Reclamation's budget includes a substantial request for enacted 
Indian water rights settlements that support the Secretary's trust and 
treaty obligations. The fiscal year 2020 Budget includes third-year 
funding to support the Blackfeet Water Rights Settlement, which by 
statute requires full funding by the enforcement date of January 21, 
2025. The fiscal year 2020 Budget also continues funding to keep 
implementation of other water settlements on track for completion 
consistent with legislated schedules. These include the Navajo-Gallup 
Water Supply Project, part of the Navajo-San Juan settlement, the 
Aamodt litigation settlement, and Crow Tribe settlement. Funding is 
also included for the Ak-Chin, San Carlos Apache, Colorado Ute (through 
the Animas-La Plata project), and Nez Perce (through the Columbia/Snake 
River Salmon Recovery Program) settlements. The fiscal year 2020 Budget 
includes $132.9 million for Indian water rights settlements.
    The Native American Affairs Program budget of $11.7 million 
continues support for Reclamation activities with Indian Tribes. These 
activities include providing technical support for Indian water rights 
settlements, and to assist tribal governments to develop, manage, and 
protect their water and related resources. The office also provides 
policy guidance for Reclamation's work with Tribes throughout the 
organization in such areas as the Indian trust responsibility, 
government-to- government consultation, and Indian self-governance and 
self-determination.
    Reclamation's efforts to support water supplies for tribal nations 
are long standing and extend beyond water rights settlement 
implementation. This includes $27.8 million in the fiscal year 2020 
Budget for certain rural water projects in Montana, North Dakota, and 
South Dakota. Examples of other activities that benefit Tribes include 
Klamath, Trinity River Restoration Program within the Central Valley 
Project, Yakima River Basin Water Enhancement Project, and the Rio 
Grande Pueblos Project.
    Reclamation's mission objective of continued water delivery and 
power generation cannot be accomplished without meeting our legal and 
environmental responsibilities. Reclamation meets these 
responsibilities on its projects through a large number of activities, 
including Reclamation's Endangered Species Act recovery programs, and 
other programs that contribute towards these efforts, such as the 
Columbia/Snake River Salmon Recovery Program, the Middle Rio Grande 
Project Collaborative Program, the San Juan River Recovery 
Implementation Program, the Upper Colorado Recovery Implementation 
Program, and the Multi-Species Conservation Program within the Lower 
Colorado River Operations Program, among many others.
    Among other efforts, Reclamation helps address the West's water 
challenges through the WaterSMART competitive grant program. This 
program helps local water stakeholders address current and future water 
shortages, including drought; degraded water quality; increased demands 
for water and energy from growing populations; environmental water 
requirements; and the potential for decreased water supply availability 
due to drought, population growth, and increased water requirements for 
environmental purposes. The fiscal year 2020 Budget includes $19.9 
million for WaterSMART programs.
    Within our research and development program, Reclamation has 
identified several key areas for investment where coordination with 
other Department bureaus will leverage results to more effectively 
achieve mission outcomes. Reclamation's fiscal year 2020 budget for 
research and development (R&D) programs include both Science and 
Technology, and Desalination and Water Purification--both of which 
focus on Reclamation's mission of water and power deliveries.
    The Science and Technology program supports engineering innovation 
that promotes economic growth, supports maintaining and improving our 
water and power infrastructure, and enhances continued generation of 
energy. Program outcomes also enable reliable water and power delivery 
to our customers, improve safety, limit the impacts of invasive 
species, and ensure that Reclamation can meet its environmental 
compliance responsibilities. These activities support the 
Administration's priorities for the fiscal year 2020 Budget, by 
supporting technology transfer activities that may lead to new business 
opportunities for private industry. The program also supports 
Administration priorities related to maintaining and improving our 
water and power infrastructure by partnering with the U.S. Army Corps 
of Engineers to foster research projects to develop technologies that 
extend the operating life and reduce maintenance costs of Reclamation's 
structures. The Administration priority related to energy from all 
sources is supported by hydropower research that ensures that 
Reclamation is maximizing reliability, reducing maintenance costs, and 
exploring new energy development opportunities. Research on safety is 
ensuring our workers can perform their jobs safely and securely.
    The Desalination and Water Purification program priorities include 
development of improved and innovative methods of desalination and 
reducing costs to develop new water supplies. The research and testing 
funded from this program supports the Administration's priorities for 
the fiscal year 2020 Budget by supporting innovative new solutions that 
spur the creation of new businesses by entrepreneurs and by advancing 
Reclamation's competitive edge in water treatment and desalination.
      central valley project restoration fund (cvprf)--$54,849,000
    This fund was established by the Central Valley Project Improvement 
Act, Title XXXIV of Public Law 102-575, October 30, 1992. The budget of 
$54.8 million is expected to be offset fully by discretionary receipts 
collected from project beneficiaries under provisions of Section 
3407(d) of the Act. The discretionary receipts are adjusted on an 
annual basis to maintain payments totaling
    $30.0 million (October 1992 price levels) on a 3-year rolling 
average basis. The fiscal year 2020 Budget represents an administrative 
decision to ``reset'' the 3-year rolling average to stabilize the year-
to-year variability in discretionary receipts. Reclamation identified 
the reset of the 3- year rolling average as a prudent decision to 
reduce the variability in annual funding that was created in the first 
3 years of the fund's establishment, which resulted in high, middle, 
and low funding years. The reset will allow stable collections 
targeting $30.0 million (October 1992 price levels) each year, 
resulting in more stability in annual payments from water and power 
customers and for restoration and mitigation programs funded by the 
Restoration Fund.
           california bay-delta restoration fund--$33,000,000
    The CALFED Bay-Delta Restoration Act (Public Law 108-361), as 
amended, authorized multiple Federal agencies to participate in the 
implementation of the CALFED Bay-Delta Program as outlined in the 
August 28, 2000, Record of Decision (ROD) for the CALFED Bay-Delta 
Program Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement and Environmental 
Impact Report. The legislation directed the implementing agencies to 
undertake a set of broadly described programmatic actions identified in 
the ROD to the extent authorized under existing law. In addition, the 
Act authorized $389.0 million in Federal appropriations for new and 
expanded authorities. Reclamation is requesting an extension of the 
CALFED Bay-Delta Authorization Act through fiscal year 2020.
    The fiscal year 2020 Budget of $33.0 million implements priority 
activities pursuant to Public Law 108-361. Six Federal agencies--the 
Department of the Interior, Department of Commerce, Department of 
Agriculture, Department of the Army, Environmental Protection Agency, 
and the Council on Environmental Quality--work together to ensure that 
the Federal actions and investments the Administration is undertaking 
are coordinated in a fashion to help address California's current water 
supply and ecological challenges. This budget supports actions under 
the following program activities: $1.7 million for Renewed Federal 
State Partnership, $2.3 million for Smarter Water Supply and Use, and 
$29.1 million to address the Degraded Bay Delta Ecosystem.
                 policy and administration--$60,000,000
    The $60.0 million budget will be used to: (1) develop, evaluate, 
and directly implement Reclamation-wide policy, rules, and regulations, 
including actions under the Government Performance and Results Act; and 
(2) manage and perform functions that are not properly chargeable to 
specific projects or program activities covered by separate funding 
authority.

    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Commissioner Burman.
    Secretary Petty, welcome.
STATEMENT OF TIMOTHY R. PETTY, PH.D., ASSISTANT 
            SECRETARY FOR WATER AND SCIENCE
    Secretary Petty. Yes, thank you, Chairman Alexander, 
Ranking Member Feinstein, Senator Kennedy. It's a pleasure to 
be able to be here this afternoon and discuss with you the 
President's fiscal year 2020 budget for the Department of 
Interior, the Bureau of Reclamation, as well as the Central 
Utah Project Completion Act, or also known as CUPCA.
    My name is Tim Petty. I'm the Interior's Assistant 
Secretary for Water and Science, and I greatly appreciate your 
ongoing support that you have given to the program of the 
Bureau of Reclamation, including the timely passage again of 
the 2019 budget. Those are rare and hopefully there will 
continue to be an effort made forth.
    The overall Department of Interior 2020 budget request is 
$12.6 billion in current funding, which supports the 
administration's top economic areas of goals to manage Federal 
spending. It also reflects our commitment to strike the right 
balance of protecting, yet sustaining using our natural 
resources in a manner that provides proper conservation 
stewardship of our public lands and waters, enhances the safety 
of our communities, increases our energy security, and allows 
our Nation to prosper.
    This request enables Interior to meet our diverse core of 
missions and continue the progress we are making in advancing 
the administration's priorities and supporting the Nation's 
growth and prosperity. Of course, reliable water supply and 
energy security are keystones in supporting the economic parts 
of these communities in the West. The Bureau of Reclamation's 
operations, including recreation, supports over $62 billion in 
economic activity each year, and supports over 457,000 jobs as 
well. Reclamation's annual average of roughly 40 billion 
kilowatt hours of electricity provides for more than a billion 
dollars in gross power revenue alone for the Federal 
Government.
    The 2020 budget supports our efforts to address the 
challenges that impact the availability and reliability of 
water supply in the States, Tribes, local governments, and 
other water users that we partner with.
    Interior's $1.1 billion budget request for Reclamation, 
that also includes a $10 million request for the Central Utah 
Project programs, invests in our water and power 
infrastructure, facilitating the delivery of water to over 31 
million people in the West. In addition, our programs invest in 
the ecosystem protection and restoration so that we can 
continue to supply water and power reliably.
    This budget also furthers Interior's commitment to working 
with the Indian Tribes toward tribal prosperity. Across 
Interior, the budget includes $178 million for the Indian Water 
Rights Settlement commitment, and this includes the $132 
million in Reclamation toward fulfilling this responsibility.
    Interior is developing and executing a program that will 
streamline processes and better serve the American people. We 
are working to reform regulations that are ineffective and 
obsolete and ensure that we reflect advances in both science as 
well as in technology. To address these water infrastructure 
challenges in the West, we are working with agreements in 
partnership with other Federal agencies--to streamline these 
western water infrastructure projects. This collaboration will 
help to coordinate regulation action and drive more efficient 
decisionmaking through clear leadership, teamwork, integration, 
and coordinated efforts.
    In conclusion, I would like to submit my whole testimony 
into the record and thank you again for your support. I'm happy 
to take any questions that you'll have.
    [The statement follows:]
             Prepared Statement of Timothy R. Petty, Ph.D.
    Thank you, Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Feinstein, and 
members of the Subcommittee, for the opportunity to discuss with you 
the President's fiscal year 2020 budget for the Department of the 
Interior's Bureau of Reclamation and Central Utah Project Completion 
Act, or CUPCA, office. I am Tim Petty, Interior's Assistant Secretary 
for Water and Science, and I appreciate your ongoing support of our 
programs.
    The Department of the Interior touches hundreds of millions of 
people, and plays an active role in western communities and the 
national economy. That could not be more evident than when looking at 
the contributions of the Bureau of Reclamation and CUPCA to our Nation. 
The Department's 2020 budget supports the Administration's economic 
goals to manage Federal spending. This reflects our commitment to 
strike the right balance of protecting yet sustainably using our 
natural resources, in a manner that provides proper conservation 
stewardship of our land and resources, enhances the safety of our 
communities, increases our energy security, and allows our Nation to 
prosper.
    The 2020 budget request for Interior is $12.6 billion in current 
funding, with access to an additional $300 million if there is another 
severe wildfire season. This request enables Interior to meet our 
diverse core missions and continue the progress we are making in 
advancing the Administration's priorities in supporting economic growth 
and prosperity. America's Federal lands and waters support more than 
1.8 million jobs in energy, recreation, grazing, conservation, 
hospitality, and more. In order to foster innovation and economic 
growth, Interior is working to reduce regulatory burdens and red tape.
    President Trump signed an Executive Order to modernize and reform 
the executive branch and Interior is leading the way, developing and 
executing a program that will streamline processes and better serve the 
American people. We are working to reform regulations that are 
ineffective and obsolete, and ensure they reflect advances in science 
and technology. Interior has also established parameters for 
streamlining environmental review and permitting processes to reduce 
delays in Federal infrastructure projects and other public and private 
sector uses of Interior lands.
    For decades, uncoordinated regulatory actions diminished the 
ability of Federal, State and local agencies to efficiently deliver 
water and power to the West in a cost-effective manner. On October 19, 
2018, President Trump signed the ``Presidential Memorandum on Promoting 
the Reliable Supply and Delivery of Water in the West'', which directs 
the Secretary of the Interior and multiple other agency Secretaries to 
``work together to minimize unnecessary regulatory
    burdens and foster more efficient decisionmaking so that water 
projects are better able to meet the demands of their authorized 
purposes.'' For example, to address water infrastructure challenges in 
the western U.S., it instructs the Secretaries of the Interior and 
Commerce to streamline western water infrastructure regulatory 
processes and remove unnecessary burdens. In response, Interior and 
Commerce signed an Agreement to promote the directives established in 
the Presidential Memorandum, and designated one lead official to 
coordinate the agencies' regulatory compliance requirements in 
California's Central Valley and in the Klamath River basin. Interior is 
similarly working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Department 
of Energy to coordinate regulatory actions and drive more efficient 
decisionmaking through clear leadership, teamwork, and integrated and 
coordinated reviews in the Columbia River basin pursuant to the 
significant direction provided by the President's Memorandum.
    In other cross-agency efforts focused on increasing coordination 
and reducing duplication across Federal agencies when it comes to water 
issues, I am actively working with my counterparts from multiple 
agencies with water-related responsibilities. We recognize that working 
collaboratively we can better support the work that is underway to 
address water challenges in priority areas including drought, water 
quality, water reuse, and weather forecasting, among others. These 
efforts along with the President's Memorandum will help to ensure 
Reclamation's funding is more effectively leveraged with related 
programs across the Federal Government.
                promoting economic growth and prosperity
    Interior's 2020 budget emphasizes the crucial contributions the 
Department's diverse missions make to the Nation's economy. According 
to Interior's latest economic report, Interior supports $292 billion in 
estimated economic benefit and the Bureau of Reclamation's activities, 
including recreation, support over $62 billion in economic activity and 
over 457,000 jobs each year.
    As the largest wholesaler of water and the second largest producer 
of hydroelectric power in the Nation, Reclamation's projects and 
programs ensure millions of customers receive the water and power 
essential to support daily life and healthy economies in Western 
communities. The 2020 budget request of $1.1 billion supports 
Reclamation's work to improve water supply reliability and availability 
to 31 million people in the West. It invests in efforts to improve 
hydropower generation efficiency and reliability. To ensure that 
millions of customers continue to receive essential water supplies and 
hydroelectric power, the 2020 budget includes $962 million for 
Reclamation's Water and Related Resource programs. Many Reclamation 
projects provide multi-purpose water resource development benefits, 
including recreation. Reclamation's recreation areas represent some of 
the most popular areas for water-based outdoor recreation activities in 
the Nation.
    The Central Utah Project annually provides 62,000 acre-feet of 
water for irrigation of over 30,000 acres and over 100,000 acre-feet 
for municipal and industrial purposes, supplying water to nearly 
400,000 people. This water will help address the water demands of the 
growing population in the Wasatch Front, one of the fastest growing 
areas in the Nation.
     government reform: reorganizing the department of the interior
    Over the years, Interior's bureaus were established with their own 
unique regional organizations, which ultimately resulted in a 
complicated series of 49 regional boundaries among eight bureaus. This 
complexity led to the situation where bureau regional leadership was 
often focused on different geographic areas and did not have adequate 
and shared understanding of the needs and perspectives of regional 
stakeholders. Opportunities to share administrative capacity across 
bureaus were difficult to recognize and implement. Members of the 
public were often frustrated by problems in inter-bureau decisionmaking 
where uncoordinated timelines and processes could lead to unnecessarily 
long delays in reaching a decision. The Department's reorganization is 
focused on making improvements across each of these areas. Interior is 
working to reorganize its operating structure to establish unified 
regional boundaries to provide better coordination across the 
Department to improve mission delivery and focus resources in the 
field.
    On August 22, 2018, after working closely with stakeholders across 
the country on options to consolidate Interior's 49 different regions 
into common regions, the Department announced the designation of 
Interior's 12 new unified regions. As a result of Tribal consultation, 
the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Bureau of Indian Education, and the 
Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians will not realign 
their regional field structures. Interior will leverage the unified 
regional structure to improve and streamline business operations using 
shared services and best practices across the Department, focusing 
primarily on human resources, information technology, and acquisition 
services. Work is underway in 2019 to plan implementation, conduct 
analysis, and identify areas for collaboration within the new regions. 
The Department's 2020 budget includes a total of $27.6 million across 
Interior to support this reorganization. The 2020 budget request for 
Reclamation includes $2.3 million to support its participation in these 
efforts.
                  advancing america's energy security
    The Department has a significant role to play in securing America's 
energy needs. Through increasing access to public lands and alleviating 
unnecessary regulatory burdens while balancing conservation objectives, 
the Department is working to advance economic growth through 
responsible energy and mineral development on Federal lands and waters. 
Interior's energy programs help generate some of the Federal 
Government's highest revenues, benefitting local communities as well as 
the U.S. Treasury.
    Reclamation's 2020 request includes $1.0 million to support 
hydropower development and research. These activities will support 
strategic investment in hydropower as an integral part of the Nation's 
energy strategy. Funding will provide for technological and operational 
innovation, deriving both additional value from existing Federal 
infrastructure as well ensuring its continued safe and reliable 
operation.
    The 2020 budget also supports innovation by using prize 
competitions to target difficult scientific and technological problems 
related to infrastructure, water availability and hydropower 
generation. Reclamation's budget includes $1.3 million to incentivize 
such research through Reclamation Water and Power Technology Prize 
Competitions.
                      meeting western water needs
    Ensuring the availability of water to communities, farmers, 
ranchers and residents across the West is a central component of 
Interior's stewardship mission. The 2020 budget supports Interior's 
work to address America's water reliability and availability and 
modernize existing water infrastructure. Improving reliability must 
include addressing water conflicts as well as making technological 
improvements that increase the capability of our water managers.
    As the largest wholesaler of water in the country, Reclamation has 
a leading role--in coordination with other Federal agencies, State 
officials, local water users, and interested stakeholders--in 
developing strategies to help ensure water supplies for future 
generations. To help address the many challenges faced by water 
managers, Interior continues the implementation of the WaterSMART 
Program. The funding proposed in Reclamation's 2020 WaterSMART budget 
supports collaboration with other Federal agencies and our non-Federal 
partners in efforts to address emerging water demands and water 
shortage issues in the West, to promote water conservation and improved 
water management, and to support local innovation efforts to stretch 
water supplies.
    The WaterSMART funding request for Reclamation in 2020 is $19.9 
million. This investment includes $10.0 million to continue WaterSMART 
conservation grants and $3.0 million for Title XVI water recycling and 
reuse research grants and is highly leveraged through partner cost-
share funding. It also includes $2.0 million to continue Reclamation's 
collaborative efforts with non-Federal partners to evaluate water 
supply and demands in water basins and develop strategies to meet 
current and future water demands through Basin Studies.
    Investment in Interior's infrastructure is crucial to local 
economies and public safety. Reclamation's state of the art Dam Safety 
Program continues to be one of the Department's highest priorities, 
utilizing the latest information and technology to evaluate and address 
the most pressing safety risks in order to ensure reliability and 
protect the downstream public. The Dam Safety Program has identified 
363 high and significant hazard dams. Reclamation evaluates dams and 
monitors performance to ensure that risks do not exceed current 
Reclamation public protection guidelines. The 2020 budget request 
includes $92.8 million for Reclamation's Dam Safety Program.
    Reclamation's budget request includes funding for specific 
Extraordinary Maintenance activities that are central to mission 
objectives of operating and maintaining projects to ensure delivery of 
water and power. Through constant monitoring and assessment, 
Reclamation strives to effectively and efficiently use its limited 
resources to ensure dam safety and to maintain operational 
capabilities. Reclamation's 2020 budget includes $114.1 million for 
extraordinary maintenance, repairs, and replacements.
              expanding access to grow the outdoor economy
    Interior's public lands and waters provide opportunities for all 
types of recreation, and increasing those opportunities for Americans 
of all abilities is a significant priority for the Department.
    Access to public lands and waters not only provides for personal 
enjoyment and tranquility for
    Americans, but also supports local economies and unique educational 
and interpretive opportunities. Interior's budget proposes to 
reauthorize the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act, which expires 
in September 2020.
    Reclamation projects play a major role in meeting the increasing 
public demand for water-based outdoor recreation opportunities. 
Reclamation projects include approximately 7.8 million acres of land 
and water and over 240 recreation areas available to the public. This 
includes 12 designated National Recreation Areas that are managed by 
the National Park Service or U.S. Forest Service. Through non-Federal 
partnerships, Reclamation assists local communities in attracting 
recreation-related investments and involves local citizens in the 
decisionmaking process.
    With increased use of Reclamation reservoirs for recreation comes 
the increased need for monitoring and early detection of invasive 
quagga and zebra mussels, and for outreach and education to prevent 
infestation. The 2020 Reclamation budget includes $5.1 million for 
prevention, early detection and monitoring, containment and control at 
existing facilities, outreach and education, and research focused on 
these issues. This funding will support Reclamation's efforts to 
proactively stop the spread of invasive mussels in the West.
                 fulfilling our trust responsibilities
    The Department of the Interior is responsible for fostering the 
government-to-government relationship with Indian Tribes and Alaska 
Native Villages. The Department is committed to Tribal prosperity and 
working together with Tribes to address challenges in economic 
development, education, and law enforcement. Interior supports Indian 
self-determination to ensure Tribes have a strong voice in shaping 
Federal policies directly impacting their ability to govern and provide 
for the safety, education, and economic security of their citizens.
    Interior's 2020 budget continues to support Federal 
responsibilities and tribal needs related to education, social 
services, infrastructure, and stewardship of land, water, and other 
natural resources. Interior's budget maintains a strong commitment to 
meet Tribal settlement agreements. Across Interior, the budget includes 
$178.6 million for Indian Settlement commitments. This includes $132.9 
million in Reclamation and $45.6 million in the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs.
                          central utah project
    The Central Utah Project Completion Act (CUPCA), Titles II--VI of 
Public Law 102-575, provides for completion of Central Utah Project 
construction by the Central Utah Water Conservancy District. The Act 
also authorized funding for fish, wildlife, and recreation mitigation 
and conservation; established an account in the Treasury for deposit of 
these funds and other contributions; established the Utah Reclamation 
Mitigation and Conservation Commission to coordinate mitigation and 
conservation activities; and provided for the Ute Indian Rights 
Settlement.
    The 2020 budget for the CUPCA program is $10.0 million. Of this 
amount, $3.7 million will be available for planning and construction 
activities administered by the Central Utah Water Conservancy District, 
continuing our partnership in the ongoing construction of the Utah Lake 
System facilities. The budget includes $4.5 million for program 
oversight and administration, operations and maintenance in support of 
fish and wildlife conservation, and endangered species recovery. In 
addition, $1.8 million will be transferred to the Utah Reclamation 
Mitigation and Conservation Account for use by the Utah Reclamation 
Mitigation and Conservation Commission. The 2020 budget also supports 
Interior's required program oversight activities and endangered species 
recovery program implementation through the Department's CUPCA Office.
                               conclusion
    Thank you for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the 
President's 2020 budget for the Department of the Interior's Bureau of 
Reclamation and Central Utah Project Completion Act program. I look 
forward to working with the Committee further on this budget. This 
concludes my testimony, and I am happy to answer any questions.

    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Secretary Petty.
    We'll now recess for about 20, 25 minutes while Senator 
Feinstein and I and Senator Kennedy go vote. And when we 
return, we'll begin questions for the Senators who are here. If 
I get back first, Senator Feinstein will go ahead and start the 
questions so as to speed things up, or if you get back.
    Senator Feinstein. Do you want to go now?
    Senator Alexander. Yes, I think we'll all go now.
    The subcommittee will stand in recess subject to the call 
of the chair.
    [Recess.]
    Senator Alexander. The subcommittee will resume its 
hearing. To the witnesses, excuse us for having to go vote. We 
had a couple of tardy Senators who kept us longer than we meant 
to stay. And I am going to go ahead, in the interest of time, 
and begin my questions, and Senator Feinstein will be here very 
shortly, and she can ask her questions when she comes.
    Let me ask a couple questions about the Inland Waterways 
Trust Fund.
    General Semonite, let me start with you. The Corps budget 
doesn't include any funding to continue construction of 
Chickamauga Lock, although the construction has been restarted 
and ongoing for the past 5 years, and it's extremely important 
to continue it. And as I mentioned in my earlier remarks, the 
Congress went to extraordinary lengths to basically raise 
taxes, increase appropriations, establish a set of priorities, 
and try to avoid the problem of starting and restopping locks. 
So let me ask you just as a general matter, General Semonite, 
is it a good idea to start and stop lock construction? Doesn't 
that waste money?
    General Semonite. Chairman, it's an extremely inefficient 
process to do that.
    Senator Alexander. How much money could you spend in fiscal 
year 2020 on Chickamauga Lock if you had the money?
    General Semonite. So, Chairman, what we do is we end up 
having increments of what would be a logical portion that we 
could build. And so we think right now in 2020, $92.3 million 
would be a good solid logical chunk that would get another 
significant amount of this built.
    I think I would just go on to say this lock was started in 
2004. At the best case, this will be done in 2024, so that's 20 
years. We think that if we ever were to start at the beginning 
with full and efficient funding, we could have built this in 6 
years. So this is a--it's a-- just a bad business practice to 
be able to stretch something out because we have a contractor 
on, then we have to demob him, then we have to bring somebody 
back on, and it's a very, very inefficient way of doing 
business.
    Senator Alexander. It really is, and we've talked about 
that before. Senator Feinstein, I went ahead just in 
efficiency----
    Senator Feinstein. That's fine.
    Senator Alexander [continuing]. And then we'll go to you.
    Senator Feinstein. Good.
    Senator Alexander. But the--I notice in--there's a--GSA has 
a Federal building in Nashville, and we appropriated the whole 
amount when we began it, and they're going to begin 
construction knowing they have the whole amount, and I'm sure 
it will save 20 or 30 percent on the cost of the building and 
reduce the amount of time. So you could spend, if you were to 
have it, $92 million in 2020. Could you provide the committee 
with the amount of money you could spend on the top three 
Inland Waterways Trust Fund projects in 2020 if you had the 
money?
    General Semonite. So, Chairman, good news here. Number 
one--and I'm taking Olmsted off because Olmsted is done. So 
Lower Mon now we're looking at as the number one priority. It 
is fully funded in the 2020 budget. Congress did a great job 
and basically brought that one. You put $111 million, so that 
one will be fully funded, and that $111 will go in the ground. 
Kentucky is the next one up----
    Senator Alexander. When you say ``fully,'' you mean 
finished funding?
    General Semonite. Yes, sir, fully funded for Lower Mon in 
the 2020 budget----
    Senator Alexander. Okay.
    General Semonite [continuing]. Based on our current 
projections. Kentucky, our next allocated increment would be 
about $66 million in 2020 that we would spend on Kentucky, and 
I already told you on Chick about $92.
    Senator Alexander. Secretary James, isn't it true that at 
the request of the commercial barge owners in 2014, Congress 
increased the revenues for the Inland Waterways Trust Fund by 
about $260 million over 10 years by increasing the fee on a 
gallon of gasoline from 20 to 29 cents?
    Secretary James. Yes, sir, that's how I understand that 
came about, was at their request.
    Senator Alexander. And isn't--doesn't that increase the 
amount deposited into the Inland Waterways Trust Fund by about 
$20 million a year since 2014?
    Secretary James. Yes, sir.
    Senator Alexander. And the President's budget estimates 
that the Inland Waterways Trust Fund will collect another $105 
million in fiscal year 2020. Is that correct?
    Secretary James. To my understanding, yes sir.
    Senator Alexander. Does the President's budget propose to 
spend the entire $105 million in taxes it collects from the 
barge owners?
    Secretary James. 2020?
    Senator Alexander. Yes, sir.
    Secretary James. 2020 is the $111 million, isn't it? Isn't 
that the----
    Senator Alexander. No, I believe----
    Secretary James [continuing]. Budget amount?
    Senator Alexander. For 2020, do you propose to spend the 
entire $105 million you collect from the barges in that year? I 
believe the answer----
    Secretary James. No, because the $111 million is half from 
the trust fund and half from general treasury.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you. And you just answered my next 
question. Well, if you're not going to spend what you're 
already collecting, then why would you propose to increase the 
fee on the inland waterway users by $1.8 billion over 10 years?
    Secretary James. My understanding is the administration 
thinks that we will need that money in the upcoming years. And 
I haven't been told this, but hopefully increase the funding 
for the locks and dams that need rehabbed or rebuilt.
    Senator Alexander. Okay. My time is up.
    Senator Feinstein.
    Senator Feinstein. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
    General, 2 years ago in February, Oroville's emergency 
spillway nearly failed, and for a few hours at least the lives 
of 188,000 people downstream were hanging in the balance. It 
was really a very serious wakeup call. The State has spent $1.1 
billion in improvements to the dam, and is engaged in a 
comprehensive needs assessment as to what more must be done. 
Now, Oroville is not a Corps-owned dam. The Corps paid, as I 
understand it, 22 percent of the original dam's construction 
costs to reserve 750,000 acre-feet of the dam's 3.5 million 
acre-feet storage capacity for flood control purposes.
    But the State is asking for the Corps' help in two 
respects. One, the State has asked the Corps to begin now an 
update to its Oroville Flood Control Manual, which dates from 
1970. This would allow the State to operate the facility as 
safely as possible in light of climate change, and improve 
weather forecasting. And number two, the State would like the 
Corps' engagement in helping assess whether further structural 
improvements are needed to assure the dam's safety.
    I think there are 188,000 people downstream. There is no 
greater priority than this. Can you be helpful? Will you make a 
commitment that you will try to help with additional resources 
on the State's two requests?
    General Semonite. Senator, great question. And we have 715 
dams, so we've got probably some of the world-class dam safety 
people. We fly all over the world helping other people to be 
able to do assessments. We are very, very committed to 
Oroville; we have been for the last couple of years. We've done 
a lot of technical work. The two main things that we've got to 
help out with is the update of the Water Control Manual, those 
things have to be much more adaptive, and then also on water 
management technical assistance.
    I think there could be some degree of funding that might be 
needed to be able to make sure that we're a reimbursable 
command. I know that there could be some perspective of FEMA 
(Federal Emergency Management Agency) being able to help as 
well. So maybe that is something that we can work together on 
to figure, what would be the right package? How would we come 
with a funding mechanism? But I will task my guys tonight to be 
able to make sure we're leaning forward to do whatever we can 
to help out Oroville, or any other dams that any other Senators 
have.
    Senator Feinstein. Thank you. You couldn't have said it 
better, and I appreciate it very much. You all have the 
expertise, and, you know, we've got the people, 188,000 at the 
bottom of that dam. So anything you can do to help and work 
with the State would really be appreciated, and I'm certainly 
available to do whatever you want. And my guess is my friend 
and Chairman would be, too. So thank you very much.
    Let me ask you about WIIN Act funding, Commissioner. The 
Bureau transmitted a list of projects that the agency selected 
to receive WIIN Act funding, and that was appropriated in 
fiscal year 2017 and 2018. In total, that list of projects 
allocated $113 million to four desal projects, six recycling 
and reuse projects, seven storage projects. Still, as I 
understand it, $259 million remains unallocated. None of the 
projects propose to use any of the funds appropriated for this 
year, 2019. And my understanding is that many could have used 
more money this year than was proposed for them. Sites could 
have used another $30 million, but was recommended for $6. The 
Friant-Kern Canal could have used $20 million, but was only 
recommended for $2.35. Los Vaqueros could have used $15 
million, but was recommended for $2.15. Do you agree with this, 
that many of the projects could have used more money than was 
allocated to them?
    Commissioner Burman. Thank you, Senator. First, I would 
like to say we very much appreciate the WIIN Act funding and 
what it's been able to do to move forward, with storage 
projects, recycling projects, desalinization projects. On 
recycling and desalinization, we have put forward 
recommendations that would use all of the appropriated funds 
from fiscal year 2017 and fiscal year 2018.
    On storage, it is a slightly different story. Just in 
February, we sent to Congress a recommendation for $75 million 
for use on storage projects, largely in California, but also in 
Washington and Idaho. And the challenge for the use of those 
funds so far has really been, are they ready? Are the projects 
ready? Do they have their feasibility reports done, as the act 
talks about? And the $75 million that we've requested, that 
we've sent up recommendations for, that really is critical for 
moving those projects forward through their feasibility and 
their environmental compliance.
    Senator Feinstein. Is Friant-Kern Canal on the list? Is Los 
Vaqueros on the list? I just didn't know.
    Commissioner Burman. In the February list--yes, they are.
    Senator Feinstein. So, what do we need to do to get it 
going?
    Commissioner Burman: The recommendations that we sent up, 
if Congress sees its way to approve those through another 
appropriations act, and list those projects, then we would be 
able to move forward with completing the feasibility on those 
projects. And on Friant-Kern for moving forward, we are moving 
forward this year with certain segments, and working with the 
locals on that. But completing feasibility will allow us to 
move to preconstruction, and then construction on those 
projects.
    Senator Feinstein. Can I stop you? Because I'm really 
confused. You're saying that this hasn't been appropriated? My 
understanding is that these projects have been allocated as 
well.
    Commissioner Burman. The WIIN Act has its own way of 
working. It's been, you know, an interesting process to work 
with. So Congress did appropriate----
    Senator Feinstein. We won't do that again.
    Commissioner urman. Congress has appropriated several 
hundred million dollars of WIIN Act funding, but in order for 
it to be actually put towards the individual projects, the 
process is that Reclamation sends you up recommendations, and 
then those recommendations must be listed individually.
    Senator Feinstein. Yes, we've gotten the recommendations.
    Commissioner Burman. And if--for the fiscal year 2017 
funds, those moved forward and were listed by Congress. If the 
2018 funds are listed by Congress individually and by amounts, 
then we'll be able to move forward in using those funds for the 
projects.
    Senator Feinstein. Is there anything we need to do?
    Commissioner Burman. If Congress was willing in a future 
bill, in an appropriation bill, to list those projects, and the 
recommendations that we sent up, then we would be able to use 
that funding to complete feasibility studies, move to 
construction.
    Senator Feinstein. Can we do that?
    Senator Alexander. Well, we'll see. But what you're saying 
is yes. Congress needs to act for you to spend the money. Is 
that correct?
    Commissioner Burman. Yes, Mr. Chairman, Senator Feinstein.
    Senator Feinstein. My friend here----
    Senator Alexander. I didn't agree to it, I just said that 
was the answer to the question.
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Feinstein. Thank you. I appreciate it.
    Senator Alexander. I usually do agree when you suggest it. 
But thank you. And we can come back to that, Senator Feinstein.
    Senator Murkowski.
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Mr. James, I want to start off by thanking you for your 
support. We were working to correct a decades-old technical 
issue that was really threatening to the City of St. Paul, up 
in Alaska, and I'm really happy to see that the Corps is very 
soon going to amend its 1998 Project Cooperation Agreement to 
reflect that original cost share, so that the Corps and the 
residents can finally close the book on this hardware 
improvement project. So thank you for that. I do appreciate it.
    I would like to visit with you about the Kenai Bluffs 
Stabilization Project. I think this probably a pretty extreme 
example, but I think it is a good one to illustrate the 
frustration that many have with the Corps when it actually 
comes to getting a project done. And you said I needed to be 
reminded of the accolades that I threw everybody at the opening 
here. But along with accolades, I know that I hear from folks 
about frustrations with projects.
    So not going into all the details, but it's been about 26 
months now since the city of Kenai attended the tentatively 
selected plan presentation. This was in February of 2017. At 
that point, there was supposed to be a signed director's report 
in November of that year. In June of 2017, the deadline for the 
director's report slipped to April 30th of 2018. In August of 
2017, the Corps began a reprogramming request in the amount of 
$150,000. The money wasn't approved for reprogramming until 
April of 2018.
    In the intervening months, the second deadline for the 
director's report was missed, the authorization for the project 
expired, so the Corps has to submit a time-extension waiver. 
That waiver is submitted in April of 2018. Approval of the 
waiver isn't granted until May of 2018. We actually had a phone 
call about this last year.
    So then there was a finding of no significant impact 
submitted by the Alaska District of Corps Headquarters in 
November of 2018. In January of this year, the third scheduled 
date for a signed director's report was missed. In March, the 
fourth deadline was missed. And the good news is it was finally 
signed today, April 10, 2019. I raised the problem in a meeting 
with Alaska District staff yesterday, and so we got some action 
there.
    So the question for you today is: What can we do to 
significantly speed up the Corps process? I kind of walked you 
through the last 2 years of this project because it would have 
been exceptionally tedious for the committee and for you if I 
had gone through the 25 years that Kenai has done. So it just 
shouldn't take this long to move through the paperwork.
    I've been told that delays like this are usually the result 
of a single point of failure, and typically at the headquarter 
level. I don't think that that is good practice, to have one 
person in any agency that is the only person that has the pen 
there, especially for a project that's been in the works for 
years and years and been vetted by so many layers within an 
agency. I've also heard of meetings that were delayed for weeks 
because there was one person who wasn't able to attend. And, 
again, these kinds of delays have significant consequences.
    So can you share with me, because I'm sure you were 
expecting this question, any ideas that you may have about how 
we can better facilitate this Corps process? And is one of the 
things that we need to do, address this issue of single point 
of failure? Can there be authority to sign off on a project so 
that there is some delegation there? Help me out with answers 
because we're now going to be moving on Kenai, but it's a 
frustration within the system.
    Secretary James. Senator, you wouldn't believe the arms I 
had to twist to get that signed today. But----
    Senator Murkowski. Thank you. Thank you for doing that.
    Secretary James [continuing]. Besides that, I'd like for 
General Semonite to address that.
    Senator Murkowski. Okay.
    Secretary James. He knows the interior working of the Corps 
better than I. I do know that he and I are working together 
very hard. That's my top priority, is to delve into the Corps 
processes. I've worked with the General, I've worked with 
General Spellmon, I've worked with James Dalton, Director of 
Civil Works, trying to identify processes like we're speaking 
of and eliminate those processes if they're uncalled for, or to 
find a way to speed through them if they're necessary. But I 
don't know the inner workings of it. May I----
    Senator Murkowski. Well, and I appreciate that, and I think 
I sense your frustration as well. As the guy at the top of the 
chain here, you shouldn't have to twist that arm in order to 
get the director's report signed. We should----
    Secretary James. I was kidding. I really didn't do it.
    Senator Murkowski. Well, but in fairness, we shouldn't have 
to wait for a committee hearing like this so that we can raise 
it to your level so that we can make that happen years----
    Secretary James. No, and you're exactly right, but the 
reason I--the reason that I am familiar with it, this isn't the 
only time it's ever happened. The chief would tell you the same 
thing. I've been around the Corps for 37 years in my previous 
job. And, yes, I've been frustrated many times to find things 
like this out. I just feel like in that large of an 
organization, it sometimes happen. I don't think it's the usual 
things that happen, but it does sometime happen. And--but I 
will tell you that I am dedicated, as is the general, and his 
top teammates, to fix this kind of thing so it doesn't happen 
in the future. I am dedicated to that.
    General Semonite. So, Senator, so I'm accountable, I'm the 
commanding general. So this is unacceptable. Okay? And the 
bottom line is we've got a lot of metrics, we've got a lot of 
projects, and every single day the biggest thing that can help 
facilitate this is communication. I send every one of my 
colonels to every one of the elected officials, I send all my 
generals down here, and then the staffs normally talk very, 
very well.
    So it's unfortunate this happened. I'm personally going to 
go blow back in to find out what happened because even you've 
given me more details that I'm aware of today. And then how do 
we somehow figure out what is that process and how do we whack 
away at that thing? We've done I think over 90 delegations 
where generals used to have to sign stuff, and now colonels and 
lower sign things at district levels. These are officers in the 
Army that we trust. Why wouldn't we empower them to have some 
of these decisions?
    So there is no excuse that I could give you, and I'm 
personally going to make sure that either Phil Borders comes 
and gives you a backbrief on what happened here, and if it's 
guys in my staff, I will personally come walk you through as 
to, Why did we have this process? But we cannot tolerate that 
type of, you know, behavior. We've got to be aggressive.
    If we have bad news, I'd much rather tell you up front this 
is a 2-year process because I'm up against a wall, but it's 
unacceptable to me to have that kind of a report.
    Senator Murkowski. Well, General, thank you, and I look 
forward to working with you, and appreciate your action.
    Thank you, Senator.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Murkowski.
    Senator Shaheen.
    Senator Shaheen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    And, Assistant Secretary James and General Semonite, I have 
three projects that I wanted to raise with you this afternoon.
    First, Secretary James, I was very pleased to see that the 
Corps fiscal year 2019 work plan included $4.6 million for 
emergency dredging at Hampton-Seabrook Harbor, New Hampshire. 
That's our State's largest commercial fishing port. It has 
experienced dramatic shoaling such that it's very difficult for 
boats to get in and out. Even at high tide, it's becoming 
increasingly difficult. And that project is underway, but I'm 
hoping that you and General Semonite will work--will commit to 
doing everything you can to expedite so that it gets done in a 
way that allows our boats to continue to operate out of that 
harbor.
    General Semonite is shaking his head, so I'll take that as 
a yes.
    General Semonite. So, ma'am, this is fully funded, so 
that's good news. And then hopefully we'll be able to be right 
on budget with good contracts and all the rest, but if not, I 
would think that this would be the kind of thing that because 
Congress has done a great job, Senators, on giving us some 
additional money above the President's budget. You've also 
given us the flexibility to allocate that in the work plan. So 
this is where one of these things--Secretary James and I are 
all in to finish what we start, and if we do have some issues, 
we want to continue to get this one across the finish line.
    Senator Shaheen. Well, thank you. If there is anything our 
office can do to help with that, please let me know.
    Secretary James. Ma'am.
    Senator Shaheen. Yes.
    Secretary James. I would mention to you that the contract 
is to be let late this year, fiscal year 2019.
    Senator Shaheen. I understand that.
    Secretary James. It will be 2020 before finished because 
the environmental windows on dredging, so I wanted you to know 
that.
    Senator Shaheen. We knew that there is a timetable. We 
would like to do everything we can to expedite that. I 
appreciate that we have a schedule there that we have to comply 
with, but, again, if there's anything that we can do to move 
that along, I hope we will do that.
    The second project is next to the Hampton-Seabrook Harbor 
that is Rye Harbor. And I was pleased that the President's 
budget included $200,000 for Rye Harbor, dedicated funding to 
begin that effort, but obviously it will need to be included in 
the Corps' 2020 work plan. And I wondered if you could talk a 
little bit about how we can ensure that projects like this 
small harbor can be included and that we can measure out 
resources so that they are able to help these kinds of smaller 
projects.
    General Semonite. So, Senator, I think what Congress has 
done is done a great job of not only worrying about where the 
biggest harbors are, but also making sure that there is some 
degree of fencing for those which are the small harbors. So 
this is where, as we put our budget together, you know the 
value of both the economy and the jobs of some of these small 
places. It might not compete well for dredging in a macro 
sense.
    So this is where we continue to do this, and I'll make sure 
that we look at this. We are right in the middle of getting 
ready to build our work plan now based on how much money we 
get, and I would think that this--that kind of harbor would 
continue to compete well.
    We're looking, of course--you know, we know you have 
concerns in Wells Harbor, also on Wood Island, so we're 
trying----
    Senator Shaheen. Well, that's Maine.
    General Semonite. Well, I know, but I thought you might be 
concerned about that as well. But I'm just saying these small 
projects do have great value----
    Senator Shaheen. They do.
    General Semonite [continuing]. And we want to make sure 
that we're tracking those.
    Senator Shaheen. And I certainly appreciate and hope that 
you will be able to address Maine's projects as well.
    The third one, though, that I wanted to mention that is New 
Hampshire is widening the uppermost turning basin on the 
Piscataqua River. The Port of Portsmouth is our biggest port in 
New Hampshire, and the Piscataqua River, that goes through the 
port, is--has the second fastest current, I believe, in the 
world, is how it is billed, and it has the greatest difference 
between high tide and low tide in that river of anyplace in the 
world, it's my understanding. I was on the Navy ship the 
Manchester last summer, and I can tell you, they had to take us 
off in what looked like a lifeboat because it was going to--if 
they didn't do that, it was going to take 2 hours to be able to 
get the boat high enough as the tide came in, in order to 
unload us on the dock.
    So this is clearly a challenge. It's a challenge because we 
have a lot of gas and oil terminals as you come into that port, 
and having--as the ships are getting longer, having a turning 
basin that has the challenges that Piscataqua does is very 
difficult.
    Now, I know that the Army Corps has submitted a favorable 
study for this project that Congress has granted construction 
authorization in the Water Resources and Development Act in 
2016. And I'm just trying to figure out what else we can do. I 
appreciate additional funding is important, and I will be 
pushing for that. But what else can we do to help ensure that, 
again, the needs of midsized ports like Portsmouth are 
addressed?
    General Semonite. So, Senator, I would say three things. 
Number one, if, in fact, the committee is so inclined to be 
able to give us additional money above the President's budget, 
that then gives us flexibility in the work plan to be able to 
take care of projects like this.
    Number two, is we also need a new start authority. So it's 
not just the additional funds that could be apportioned to the 
work plan, but we need that ability to be able to continue to 
go. You need $16.6 million. We think that would compete very, 
very well in an fiscal year 2020 work plan because of the 
criticality of this particular harbor.
    Senator Shaheen. Thank you. That's very helpful.
    Thank you.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Shaheen.
    Senator Hyde-Smith.
    Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
    Secretary James, first of all, I want to tell you how much 
I appreciate you coming to Mississippi on March the 29 and 
express my deepest gratitude to you for coming over to observe 
the catastrophic flooding that we're experiencing right now.
    At the time of the flyover, roughly 512,000 acres of land, 
a land larger than Los Angeles and New York combined, was 
underwater. And as you know, this land is on the so-called 
protected side of the federally constructed levee system. This 
flooding began on February the 15, and it continues today. And 
while the water is slowly receding, more than 450,000 acres of 
land is still underwater. Roughly 208,000 acres of prime 
cropland will go unplanted this season, and as former 
Commissioner of Agriculture, I know exactly the devastation 
that that is.
    In 2007, the Corps of Engineers stated that if unable to 
construct the remaining unconstructed features of the flood 
control project for this area, which began literally in 1941. 
Flooding would continue to adversely impact the standard of 
living for residents and daily practices to travel to work, 
school, to church; financial losses from flood damages to 
residential and nonresidential structures, cars, personal 
property; and would limit economic opportunities for the area 
residents. The Corps was absolutely correct.
    Would you please describe to the subcommittee just the 
severity of the situation of what you observed that day for the 
rest of the committee to share what you have just recently 
toured?
    Secretary James. Yes, Senator. I got with the district 
commander from Vicksburg, Mississippi, and we went out to the 
Yazoo area. I took a helicopter, flew over the area. It's a 
large, large area, and it has small towns, cities, small 
industry. It has cotton gins, grain elevators, and that type of 
infrastructure to support agriculture. And what I saw was that 
a lot of that area was underwater.
    Now, that particular area is part of the MR&T project, 
which goes from Cairo to the Gulf, and the MR&T project, which 
was authorized in 1928, is not complete yet, and this is one of 
the areas that is not complete. And there the small towns 
there, they're people of--they're less fortunate than most. 
They have no way of rising up or getting the attention of a 
major newspaper to show their plight. And it's a bad situation. 
And we, the Corps of Engineers, needs to look at it, all the 
other agencies that might be involved with it need to look at 
it and take another look at it, and, frankly, the Congress 
does.
    Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you. And do you think it's fair 
to say that it's absolutely necessary for the Environmental 
Protection Agency and the Corps to remain at the table until an 
adequate flood control solution is delivered to these area 
residents, which they have been promised literally since 1941?
    Secretary James. Well, Senator, the EPA and the Corps are 
probably the main characters in this endeavor in your State. I 
don't feel comfortable saying they should stay at the table, 
but, you know, negotiations, talks, information sharing, et 
cetera, et cetera, actually looking at the project, would 
probably be a good thing for both of those agencies to do.
    Senator Hyde-Smith. Thank you. I appreciate you being there 
and I appreciate your committed efforts, and looking forward to 
working on that because it is the number one devastation 
problem we have right now currently today in Mississippi. But 
thank you so much for coming, for viewing, and talking to the 
residents on the ground that you did.
    Thank you.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Hyde-Smith.
    Senator Hoeven.
    Senator Hoeven. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I've worked 
legislatively to advance what's called P3 and WIFIA. Both of 
these programs are tools that I believe will help the Corps do 
more with less, P3, which increases the local cost share, and 
WIFIA, which leverages the local cost share through a loan 
guarantee.
    I'm going to start with General Semonite. Can you talk 
about what you perceive to be a--do you believe P3s are an 
advantageous tool for the Corps? And if so, how do you plan to 
proceed?
    General Semonite. So, Senator, in my opening comments I 
talked about revolutionizing the Corps, and one of those three 
main objectives is to figure out how we can do better with 
alternative financing. We don't have enough money in the United 
States Government to pay back $98 billion of backlog, so we've 
got to think out of the box.
    Now, you know very well the advantages, and I'll just read 
a couple numbers here. The amount, if you went to a P3 option, 
it's going to save the government at least $100 million. It's 
going to go from a 16-year project to a 6\1/2\-year project and 
things like 28 contracts down to 11. It's just a much, much 
more efficient way to do it. And it takes the money off, it 
takes some of the stress off, of the system, so that money can 
be apportioned to other places.
    So I personally believe that P3 is a very, very strong 
option in certain applications, and Fargo-Moorhead is a great 
example of that.
    Senator Hoeven. In order then for that to work, the Federal 
Government actually has to provide funding for those projects. 
So it's important that they're given fair consideration when 
it's time for funding, which is why I also included legislation 
to direct the OMB to do that, and they've come back with a 
project account that is available for P3 projects. Do you 
support that tool or something--that funding or something 
similar so that you can actually utilize these tools and reduce 
the backlog and get some of these things done?
    General Semonite. Senator, I would just say that we would 
need a methodology to be able to find that funds. I'll defer to 
the Secretary as to how that would happen.
    Senator Hoeven. Okay. Well, then let's--Secretary James, 
again, these tools are only effective if, (A) they are 
implemented, and, (B) then there's a way to fund those 
projects, not have them--I mean, why would somebody sit and 
wait at the back of the line if they're not going to be given 
consideration for taking much less--taking much larger share of 
the funding, getting much less Federal funding? There would be 
no advantage, would there? So you've got to have some way to 
advance those projects, which is exactly what the legislation I 
advanced required, but it's going to have to be put into 
practice. So I want to hear your thoughts on how we do that.
    Secretary James. Well, I think that's exactly right, 
Senator. One way that that does advance the project, it 
empowers the benefit-cost ratio as it's known today. Now, those 
projects, P3 or whatever, WIFIA, whatever, still have to 
compete in the Federal budget.
    Senator Hoeven. Of course.
    Secretary James. The money, the Federal money, that's 
applied against those projects still have to compete. I don't 
know. These--these are--and this is not an excuse, but these 
are relatively new, and my team and the Corps team are working 
as we speak trying to figure out how to implement them in a 
fair and expeditious way. We're not there yet. I will tell you 
we're not there yet. But we are working on it, and you have my 
assurance we're going to get there as quickly as we can.
    Senator Hoeven. Well, I'll give you a concrete example, and 
this won't surprise you, but the Red River Valley flood 
protection, a $2.8 billion project, provides protection for 
both North Dakota and Minnesota, a multistate project. Of that 
$2.8 billion, the Federal cost share is $750 million. I think 
that comes out to something less than 30 percent. And the State 
and local funding is ready to go. Okay. Why would the locals do 
all that if they're going to have to wait in line like any 
conventional project that's going to get 65 percent funding? Do 
you follow me?
    So the whole point is for us to cut that backlog, General, 
like you just described. You've got to have some way to give a 
reasonable credit in a competitive environment for projects 
that come forward and make that kind of effort. Am I right 
about that?
    Secretary James. You're absolutely right. And, you know----
    Senator Hoeven. And wouldn't it be advantageous to give 
you, Mr. Secretary, and you, General, more discretion in 
looking at these projects rather than, you know, just some 
formula over at OMB? Wouldn't it make sense to give the 
engineers and the Secretary that build these projects 
discretion to look at these tools and make some of those 
decisions so you reduce that backlog? The Federal Government 
benefits, getting more projects for less money, and cities and 
States get their projects done, and it gives them an incentive 
to do more. Isn't that the right incentive?
    Secretary James. Sure, it's the right incentive, but I will 
have to say that, you know, I work with the administration, and 
I'm happy to work with the Congress in any way that I can 
through work plans or whatever, and for searching for better, 
speedier ways to use this new financing tools that--one of the 
financing tools that we have available to us, and we just 
haven't gotten there yet.
    Senator Hoeven. But it's something that you believe we 
should do and you're working to do.
    Secretary James. Absolutely.
    Senator Hoeven. Okay.
    Secretary James. Absolutely.
    Senator Hoeven. Any other recommendations that either you 
or, General Semonite, you would have to advance that process?
    General Semonite. Sir, I do think that there is a 
congressional scoring office variable in here in that when you 
think about benefit-cost ratios, I do think that we've got to 
have some dialogue as to if, in fact, a non-Federal sponsor or 
a private entity comes in with a contribution, that doesn't 
necessarily change that benefit-cost ratio.
    So it's not just the fact that we've got to work through 
the funding fees, but we've got to also make sure that the 
liability or potential liability that could be back on the 
Federal Government is somehow--is eliminated from that so that 
the benefit-cost ratio could be higher. Therefore, like you 
said earlier, it would compete better.
    So there's a--it's a very, very confusing system, but I do 
think that there is great merit of bringing the right people at 
the table and figure out a way to get further ahead on this.
    Senator Hoeven. Okay. Mr. Chairman, I do have another 
question. I can hold if there is--if you want to do another 
round, if you want----
    Senator Alexander. Go ahead.
    Senator Hoeven. Okay. To both you gentlemen, I truly 
appreciate your can-do attitude in trying to make these things 
happen. And so from my standpoint, it's, How do we give you the 
tools to do what you're trying to do? And so any ideas you have 
I'm always open to.
    Thank you for your indulgence, Mr. Chairman.
    Commissioner Burman, there are two things in regard to the 
Bureau that I would like to bring up relative to North Dakota. 
One is water treatment plant on the Northwest Area Water Supply 
system, which is a Federal obligation, but the State is going 
ahead and building it now on our own dime because of lack of 
Federal funding hasn't come forward. Do you anticipate that 
happening, we get it out of the MR&I funding, but, again, it 
could take so long, at some point, we just build it and hope to 
get paid back someday? And it's a Federal obligation. And, you 
know, at the end of the day, if it's a Federal obligation and 
people just wait and wait and wait, they figure the heck with 
it, but that doesn't speak well for a Federal Government.
    And, second, we're trying to transfer the Oakes Test sites 
when the Garrison Diversion project was canceled by the Federal 
Government, the local irrigation district took it over and 
operated it, but now we're trying to transfer it to them, or it 
will just be shut down and not be operative. So will you commit 
to helping me with the transfer of the Oakes Area Test site to 
the Dickey-Sargent Irrigation District? And I have to say on 
this one so far your people on the ground have been tremendous 
on it, they've been very helpful.
    Commissioner Burman. That's great to hear, Senator. Maybe 
I'll start with the transfer question first. We are working on 
the ground. Your folks were just in our office last week here 
in Washington, DC. And first of all, I want to say for several 
years Reclamation, the administration, the Department, have 
been supportive of title transfer legislation, and Congress 
just passed that last month. So I think that's going to be a 
very useful tool to allow us to transfer certain projects in a 
much more efficient manner through an administrative process.
    We are working with your constituents to see if they work 
within that process, or if not, how can we change things to 
make sure that they do? But we're moving forward with that.
    On North Central, they--that project, they absolutely need 
a water treatment plant, no question. And the fiscal year 2019 
funds that Congress provided, we've put significant funding 
towards trying to achieve that. We are working diligently to 
try and move forward with all of the rural water projects. We 
are--we--you know, by law, we have to prioritize operation and 
maintenance. And so when we look at our budget and our numbers, 
the first thing we do is we put funding towards operation and 
maintenance.
    After that, we look at, How can we move projects forward? 
And from the administration's point of view, we've wanted to 
start with Tribal, Tribal projects or the Tribal portions of 
projects that are out there.
    So the funding request you see is a reflection of those 
priorities, and we have certainly worked with Congress wherever 
we can to be moving forward projects.
    Senator Hoeven. Well, if you can get your team engaged on 
the Northwest Water Treatment Plant the way you have in the 
Oakes Test site, it would be great. I know Mike Black from his 
days at--since Indian Affairs when he was BIA Commissioner. 
He's been really good. If we try to get that same level of 
engagement on the water treatment plant, it would be great.
    Thank you.
    Commissioner Burman. Thank you.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Hoeven.
    I have a few more questions, then we'll conclude the 
hearing. Senator Hoeven talked about the economic analyses that 
are used to decide which projects to build.
    Mr. James, Secretary James, I have three main concerns with 
how the Corps prioritizes projects for the budget. One, I think 
it doesn't accurately estimate the benefits of a project. For 
example, in the case of the Chickamauga Lock, the analysis 
didn't take into account the fact that the cargo was shipped by 
railroad and truck because the existing lock was unreliable. So 
when construction was started of the lock in 2004, there were 
2.7 million tons of cargo shipped. Today it's only 1 million 
tons. Well, the main reason is because you couldn't get through 
the lock. And so if you're going to calculate the need for 
money to fix the lock, you ought to take into account the fact 
that it has reduced traffic because you're fixing it.
    Two, it doesn't take into account the fact that funds have 
already been spent on the project when making decisions about 
the budget request.
    And then, three, the administration overestimates the cost 
of a project by assuming a much higher interest rate or 
discount rate than what market interest rates actually are, for 
example, 7 percent rather than 3 percent.
    Do you have any comment on that?
    Secretary James. I'll take the first one first. According 
to the information I'm given, the Corps did take in the 
analysis of the cost of shipping without the use of the lock in 
their analysis on the lock.
    Senator Alexander. Well, I hope that's right. That's not 
what I had understood, but if that's--would you mind checking 
that to make sure that's----
    Secretary James. Sir, I will do that, and I'll get right 
back to you.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you.
    Secretary James. The other question was?
    Senator Alexander. What about the funds that have already 
been spent on the lock? It's about half built, and they don't 
take that into account.
    Secretary James. The administration continues to use the 
BCR (Benefit Cost Ratio), the present value, the benefits 
versus the present value of cost, in their interpretation, and 
at a 7-percent discount rate, which is the interest rate 
basically, and I work within those figures.
    Senator Alexander. I know you do, but why would you use 
the--why would the administration use 7 percent when 3 percent 
would be closer to a market rate?
    Secretary James. Sir, I can't answer for the 
administration. I don't----
    Senator Alexander. General Semonite, do you have any 
comment?
    General Semonite. Sir, I just think back to your--your 
earlier statement on benefit-cost ratio with respect to 
remaining benefit-cost ratio. You're right on point. We do 
think that there is some different metrics that could be used 
that would help facilitate this.
    But I'll use Chick as an example. Even today, the remaining 
benefit-cost ratio of Chick is 1.5. If the current standard is 
2.5 to solicit for funding, I would say that it's going to be a 
little bit more complicated than just say use remaining 
benefit-cost ratio. I would go to the simple rule that if 
Congress appropriates money and it's critical to this Nation 
and we've started it, then let's finish it. We put $300 million 
into Chickamauga. Why wouldn't we see that investment through?
    So this goes back to, where are those projects that are 
sitting there? Just think about the message when you're driving 
by a lock and dam, and you see somebody working on it for a 
couple years, and they all go home for a couple years, and 
you're wondering, why did the Federal--why did the taxpayers 
invest in that?
    So I am big fan, and I'm talking personally, that once we 
start something that we think is value to this Nation, we ought 
to see it through and finish what we start.
    Senator Alexander. Well, thank you. And that's simple and 
that's very straightforward. And, of course, the last several 
years Congress has decided to put significantly more dollars 
into the Army Corps of Engineers' budget so that we wouldn't 
have to start and stop. And you've said today that the amount 
of money that we need to continue to work on the top three 
priorities have been agreed on for several years, $111 for 
priority number one; for priority number two, it's--that's 
Kentucky Lock, it would be----
    General Semonite. $66.
    Senator Alexander [continuing]. $66; and for priority 
number three, which is Chickamauga Lock, was $92. So my hope 
would be that if Congress puts sufficient funding over and 
above what the administration has proposed, that the Corps will 
follow the principle of let's finish what we've started, let's 
don't stop what we've started, and we'll move ahead with the 
construction of those three top priorities.
    General Semonite. Yes, Mr. Chairman. But Senator Hoeven 
said something very, very critical a couple minutes ago, and I 
don't want it to get lost. It's not just the funds, it's the 
flexibility. Congress did a phenomenal job with the $17.4 
supplemental. You said go figure out where the most dangerous 
places are and then apply the supplemental. You allow us that 
flexibility in the work plan. Where's the best place for that 
money to go? So this is where the funds are obviously needed, 
but the ability to be able to--us, from an engineering and 
science perspective to be able to apply those funds is hand-in-
hand just as important.
    Senator Alexander. Well, that's true, but we've agreed on 
those three priorities, and I don't--I want to preserve our 
Article I ability to designate where money goes when it needs 
to go----
    General Semonite. Of course, sir.
    Senator Alexander. And I--and not turn it over to people 
who aren't elected, with all respect to you and the Office of 
Management and Budget.
    One other question, which is important in our State, but 
small to others. Does the Corps budget request include enough 
funding--and I guess this would be for you, Secretary James--
this is about mitigation of damage to fish. The Corps purchases 
fish from the National Fish Hatcheries at Dale Hollow and Erwin 
to restock the fish in the Cumberland River just as TVA 
(Tennessee Valley Authority) does from National Hatcheries, and 
you do that to mitigate the loss of fish due to the dams 
operated on the river systems. Do you have enough money in your 
budget request to include funding to reimburse the Fish and 
Wildlife Service for the fish the Corps needs and ensure that 
our Nation's mitigation fish hatcheries can continue to meet 
the Corps' mitigation needs?
    Secretary James. Yes, sir. I think there are like $5.5 
million to purchase the fisheries--to purchase the fish out of 
that specific fishery.
    Senator Alexander. Good.
    Secretary James. So I think for this year we're in good 
shape.
    Senator Alexander. That's what I was asking. And, of 
course, the Tennessee Valley Authority is--in 2015, signed a 
permanent agreement with the Fish and Wildlife Service to 
basically do the same thing as a result. So that's important.
    I don't have any other questions.
    Senator Hoeven, do you have any other question, comment?
    Senator Hoeven. No, Mr. Chairman, but thank you. And I do 
want to commend these two gentlemen for their diligence and 
just their can-do attitude.
    Thanks, guys.
    Senator Alexander. Thank you, Senator Hoeven.
    The hearing record will remain open for 10 days. Senators 
may submit additional information or questions for the record 
within that time if they would like. The subcommittee requests 
all responses to questions for the record to be provided within 
30 days of receipt.
    I want to thank each of the four of you for being here 
today and thank you for serving our country in the way that you 
do. You gets lots of requests. You have to balance lots of 
difficult situations. You have to work with the President's 
budget, and it's not just this President, most Presidents' 
budget are difficult to work with. Fortunately, we have the 
United States Congress to restore a certain sense of balance to 
what we need to do as a country, and we intend to try to do 
that this year. My hope is that soon President Trump and our 
congressional leaders will agree on a top-line number for our 
appropriations process so that we can do our work on this 
subcommittee and report it to the full committee and get our 
recommendations to the floor so that we can have a law for you 
to operate on during the entire fiscal year before the year 
starts because we know that that saves the taxpayers money and 
makes it easier for you to be good managers and good stewards 
of what needs to be done.

                          SUBCOMMITTEE RECESS

    Thanks for being here. The subcommittee will stand 
adjourned.
    [Whereupon, at 4:50 p.m., Wednesday, April 10, the 
subcommittee was recessed, to reconvene subject to the call of 
the Chair.]