[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 43 (Thursday, March 18, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1450-H1451]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




INTRODUCING LEGISLATION TO BRING FEDERAL GOVERNMENT UP-TO-DATE ON WATER 
                          RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, one of the characteristics of a livable 
community is the desire to promote the safety, health, and economic 
security of our families.
  Today, in the newspapers around the country, people read of the 
expected flooding that is about to occur this spring. I, obviously, 
come from an area of the Pacific Northwest that will be particularly 
hard hit, although we are often under water even in the best of times, 
and it may be less of a wrenching experience for some of us than around 
the country.
  We are going to watch for an unusually harsh spring in the Pacific 
Northwest, in the Southwest, in the East, and it is an item that the 
Federal Government has been concerned about for a number of years. The 
Federal Government has been a partner working to protect against flood 
damage since 1960. Over $40 billion Federal dollars have been invested 
in this effort.
  Ironically, the losses from flood damage today, adjusted for 
inflation, are three times greater than before we started in 1960 and 
spent the $40 billion. Why? In part, because we have not been as wise 
as we should have been in the expenditure of these funds. We have taken 
rivers across the country, we have narrowed and channelized them, we 
have encouraged people to live up to the river's edge with a false 
sense of security, we have paved over half our Nation's wetlands and, 
consequently, in many of these areas, there is simply no place for the 
water to go.
  The result of our Federal disaster policy has been massive damage to 
a number of the same properties at a great cost to the taxpayer. One 
home in Houston that is appraised at less than $115,000 has received 
over $800,000 in federal flood insurance in less than 20 years.
  There is, in fact, a smarter way to promote community livability. I 
have introduced legislation today, with the gentleman from Maryland 
(Mr. Gilchrest), H.R. 1186, to bring the Federal Government up-to-date 
on water resource management.
  The current system simply does not work well. The Corps of Engineers 
does cost-benefit analysis that simply does not recognize the benefit 
of flood damage avoided by moving communities out of harm's way and it, 
consequently, produces a flawed analysis.
  Likewise, Federal financial assistance has a current cost-share 
formula that penalizes communities that make special efforts to develop 
and implement hazard mitigation and floodplain management.
  Lastly, we do not give communities enough flexibility to fine-tune 
the projects that we have previously authorized.
  As a result, on the books we have projects that are often expensive 
and do not adequately address the threat in today's needs, and 
communities are not allowed to be involved in this process directly.
  Our legislation, H.R. 1186, would correct all of these items. It 
changes the cost-benefit ratio to fully reflect the benefits including 
avoided costs of moving people out of harm's way. It will provide the 
same financial incentives for the low-cost, innovative, less intrusive 
approaches to floodplain management as if people are going to use 
traditional dams, dikes and levies.
  Finally, it will allow the private and public local partners, who are 
working

[[Page H1451]]

with the Corps of Engineers and the Federal Government, to provide 
cost-effective solutions and to be able to refine and fine-tune those 
plans without having to go back through the reauthorization process.
  We talk a lot on the floor of this House about reducing Federal 
redtape. This is a simple item that we, by legislation, can permit our 
communities to avoid the costs and consequences of trying to crawl back 
through the legislative process or, worse, build simply a project that 
we know will fail.
  As we watch the flooding that is about to occur this spring across 
the country, I hope that we will think about how the Federal Government 
needs to be a more constructive partner for livable communities. I 
strongly urge my colleagues to join the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. 
Gilchrest) and me in the sponsorship of H.R. 1186.

                          ____________________