[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 113 (Wednesday, September 13, 2006)]
[House]
[Pages H6504-H6505]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




APPOINTMENT OF CONFEREES ON H.R. 2864, WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ACT 
                                OF 2005

  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to take from the 
Speaker's table the bill (H.R. 2864) to provide for the conservation 
and development of water and related resources, to authorize the 
Secretary of the Army to construct various projects for improvements to 
rivers and harbors of the United States, and for other purposes, with a 
Senate amendment thereto, disagree to the Senate amendment, and request 
a conference with the Senate thereon.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Tennessee?
  There was no objection.


               Motion to Instruct Offered by Mr. Melancon

  Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I offer a motion to instruct conferees.
  The Clerk read as follows:

       Mr. Melancon moves that the managers on the part of the 
     House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two 
     Houses on the Senate amendment to the bill H.R. 2864 be 
     instructed to agree to provisions that will provide 
     protection to communities located in the coastal area of 
     Louisiana and Mississippi from the storm surge of a category 
     5 hurricane.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 7 of rule XXII, the 
gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Melancon) and the gentleman from 
Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Louisiana.
  Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I come here today in support of building a comprehensive hurricane 
protection system for the gulf coast. For years we in Congress have 
focused on various wants for our constituents. Today we have the 
opportunity to focus on the Nation's needs.
  Earlier this year, I introduced in Congress the Meeting Authorization 
Requirements for Our Coast, or MARC, Act. This legislation would have 
authorized a comprehensive hurricane protection system for the gulf 
coast. Today's motion is a continuation of that effort.
  Building a hurricane protection system that can protect our coastal 
citizens and businesses from category five hurricanes is the most 
important need in the U.S. Gulf Coast States. In Louisiana alone there 
are currently 200,000 people that have no protection, zero, from the 
next deadly hurricane. If Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana just a few 
miles to the west, the devastation would have been like nothing you 
have seen on TV, and building a category five hurricane protection 
system will save the lives of these people in future events.
  But a comprehensive hurricane protection system is also vital to 
supporting and safeguarding our Nation's energy supply. Louisiana has a 
long and distinguished history of oil and gas production, both on and 
offshore. Among the 50 States, we are first in crude oil production, 
second in natural gas production, and second in total energy 
production. Currently, approximately 34 percent of the Nation's natural 
gas supply and almost 30 percent of the Nation's crude oil supply is 
either produced in Louisiana, produced offshore Louisiana, or moves 
through the State and its coastal wetlands. Together with the 
infrastructure in the rest of the State, this production is connected 
to nearly 50 percent of the total refining capacity of this entire 
country.
  Based on its energy-producing value to the Nation, acre for acre, 
Louisiana is the most valuable real estate in the Nation. Louisiana has 
17 petroleum refineries, most of them large, world-scale facilities. 
These refineries have a combined crude oil distillation capacity of 
approximately 2.77 million barrels per day, which is 16.2 percent of 
the total U.S. refinery capacity of 17.1 million barrels a day, the 
second highest in this Nation. Two of the four Strategic Petroleum 
Reserve storage facilities are in south Louisiana along our coast. Just 
last week Chevron announced it discovered a deepwater oil and gas field 
off Louisiana's coast that could account for as much as 50 percent of 
our Nation's known reserves. The field would be largely serviced by 
Louisiana ports, ports that remain highly vulnerable. Louisiana is 
crucial to all parts of America because of its working ``energy 
coast,'' and we need your help.
  Supporting our Nation's energy needs has come at a price. In the past 
century, Louisiana has lost 1.2 million acres of coastal wetlands and 
barrier islands and stands to lose hundreds of thousands more acres if 
measures to stop the loss are not taken. That is a football field of 
land every 38 seconds along our vanishing coast. Without this protected 
buffer, Louisiana's people, businesses, and energy infrastructure are 
much more vulnerable to storm surges and hurricane-related flooding.
  Comprehensive hurricane protection combined with coastal restoration 
will offer truly adequate hurricane protection necessary to protect the 
lives of over 2 million residents, over 50 percent of the State's 
population, and the entire infrastructure that supports our Nation's 
energy needs.
  Some of my colleagues might question the cost of a comprehensive 
hurricane protection system. In response I say that you can pay now or 
you can pay much higher later. You can pay to build a category five 
protection system today or you could pay later with a disrupted 
national energy supply, ruined businesses, lives lost, and hundreds of 
billions of dollars of recovery costs to the citizens of this country.
  The gulf coast has worked tirelessly and quietly for generations to 
provide the rest of the Nation with energy and transportation services 
needed to keep industry around the country on pace. Only now in this 
time of need does the gulf coast ask for something back, a category 
five hurricane protection system to protect lives, property, and energy 
production for future storms.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I am delighted we are moving to conference on the Water Resources 
Development Act. This is a very important piece of legislation that 
makes investments all around America. The projects in these bills will 
reduce transportation costs, protect our homes and businesses from 
damaging floods, and improve our environment for a better quality of 
life. The Water Resources Development Act is important legislation for 
the entire country.
  The people of Louisiana and Mississippi suffered greatly from 
Hurricane Katrina last year. A great deal has been done by the Army 
Corps of Engineers to restore the hurricane protection works in the New 
Orleans area, but there is still much to do.
  While I support the motion to instruct, I believe we have to 
recognize that there will be residual risk associated with any 
hurricane protection project we build. New Orleans needs to consider 
smart ways to rebuild that put fewer of their citizens at risk.
  We also must recognize that the damaging effect of a hurricane is not 
measured strictly by its category, which basically measures wind speed. 
Other factors such as how fast it moves, how much rain is associated 
with it, what direction it takes, and how big a storm surge it is able 
to generate all contribute to whether a category five hurricane will be 
catastrophic or just very bad.
  We are talking about protecting an important and unique region of our 
country, but we also have only a slight understanding at this point of 
how much money we will need to spend. It will certainly be tens of 
billions of dollars. And I will remind Members that there are other 
great cities in America at risk of flooding, some at higher risk than 
New Orleans.
  While I would hope that there will be serious urban planning going on 
at the

[[Page H6505]]

local level, I believe we need a well-thought-out plan for additional 
hurricane protection in this region of the gulf. It must be a 
comprehensive plan that also recognizes the navigation needs of one of 
America's great ports and waterways as well as the ecological 
importance of the coastal marshes.
  I want to assure Mr. Melancon that I will work in conference to make 
sure that the Corps of Engineers gets the authority it needs to provide 
the appropriate protection for coastal Louisiana and Mississippi
  Mr. CONYERS. Mr. Speaker, we were all horrified a year ago when New 
Orleans' levies broke under the force of the winds and storm surges 
caused by Hurricane Katrina. Katrina was at Category 3 strength when it 
made landfall that fateful day, yet it wrought destruction beyond our 
imagination. In the face of the devastation we witnessed, it borders on 
the absurd to consider authorizing levee funding for New Orleans at 
anything less than the Category 5 level. For that reason, I rise in 
strong support of the Melancon Motion to Instruct the WRDA conferees.
  Mr. Speaker, past authorizations for hurricane protection took into 
account vast marshes and wetlands, as well as barrier islands that 
could absorb most of the force of tidal surges. Louisiana has lost 1.2 
million acres of this land due to economic development in the past 
century, and stands to lose another 435,000 acres if measures to stop 
the loss aren't taken. Without this protective buffer, the people of 
Louisiana are that much more vulnerable to storm surges and other 
hurricane-related flooding.
  Coastal and wetlands restoration combined with a strong levy system 
will offer the hurricane protection necessary to protect the lives of 
over 2 million residents and the nation's industries. However, we 
cannot rebuild all of the wetlands lost in the near term, so we must 
compensate with stronger, better levee protection. The Army Corps of 
Engineers has worked hard to bring levees back up to pre-Katrina 
standards, but we've already seen what that level of protection does--
nothing. Anything less than Category 5 levee protection is totally 
inadequate and would be an insult to the memory of the more than 700 
New Orleanians who lost their lives a year ago.
  Mr. JEFFERSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to request the conferees on 
the Water Development Resources Act guarantee levee protection at a 
Category 5 level. Hurricane Katrina served as a stark reminder that our 
levee system in south Louisiana is inadequate. We are responsible for 
ensuring the safety of its residents, and today we can make a 
commitment that they are not forgotten.
  The economic and environmental benefits that south Louisiana provides 
to the nation are substantial. Coastal Louisiana produces over 30% of 
our nation's seafood, including 50% of our shrimp crop. Our wetlands 
are home to over 79 endangered species and serve as a vital habitat for 
migratory birds. The network of interconnected waterways and presence 
of several major port facilities are an important hub in our maritime 
industry. Over 70% of the grain produced in the United States travels 
through the area. 30% of our domestic crude oil and 34% of our natural 
gas is produced by or travels through south Louisiana, making us a 
centerpiece in America's Energy Coast. In addition to transporting much 
of our domestic oil supply, coastal Louisiana also refines 16% of our 
petroleum products. Knowing this, we must ensure that this valuable 
part of our nation's infrastructure remains intact and its people 
remain protected.
  Our current levee system in New Orleans dates back to the 1960s, and 
since then our whole environment has changed. The loss of coastal 
barrier islands and the erosion of our wetlands have led to a weakened 
first line of defense against hurricanes. These islands and wetlands 
help absorb the storm's tidal surge and weaken the strength of an 
approaching storm. We are losing our wetlands at a rate of 25 to 30 
square miles per year, while we are making areas further inland more 
susceptible to flooding. We have seen hurricanes become more powerful 
and more frequent as the years go by. The risk of hurricanes will 
always be present in south Louisiana, it is up to us to decide how to 
best mitigate their destructive impacts.
  Looking at this situation, I am reminded of what I saw firsthand in 
the Netherlands. After the devastating North Sea floods of 1953, that 
nation committed itself to a system of water management projects that 
would ensure such a flood never happened again. Although the cost was 
high, their determination to provide absolute protection was justified. 
As a result, the Netherlands now has a significant number of its 
citizens living and produces 70% of its $480 billion GDP in areas that 
are fifteen to twenty feet below sea level, safely protected by flood 
control projects. By comparison, the lowest areas of New Orleans are 
only four and a half feet below sea level. Protecting the city is not 
beyond our technological capabilities, it is simply a matter of making 
the commitment necessary to do so. While the cost may seem substantial 
now, it pales in comparison to the cost we would face in human and 
economic losses should another hurricane strike south Louisiana 
directly.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time to get it right. We must ensure the safety of 
the city of New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast, because we have 
seen the horrible effects of substandard, poorly designed, inadequate 
levee protection in the face of a powerful storm. A working flood 
control system for south Louisiana begins with sound levees. I urge the 
conferees to support levee protection against a Category 5 storm surge.
  Mr. ABERCROMBIE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support Congressman 
Melancon's motion to instruct conferees on H.R. 2864. This motion would 
direct conferees to accept provisions that will protect coastal 
communities in Louisiana and Mississippi from the storm surge of a 
category 5 hurricane.
  Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf on August 29, 2005, and was a category 
3 hurricane that did not even directly hit the affected areas.
  Yet, Katrina was able to inflict monstrous and unimaginable damage 
upon Louisiana and the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. One year after 
Hurricane Katrina, the area remains a terrible, twisted portrait of 
lives and families and whole communities washed away; home by home, 
block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.
  As a result of Hurricane Katrina:
  More than 1,000 people died.
  The total number of immediately displaced people has never been 
determined. Estimates range from the hundreds of thousands to the 
millions.
  The Louisiana parishes of Orleans and St. Bernard were especially 
hard hit by flooding, with an estimated 77% of Orleans's population 
affected, and nearly all residents of St. Bernard.
  In Mississippi, 55% of Hancock County's population is estimated to 
have been affected by flooding and/or structural damage.
  In the greater New Orleans area alone, there were 160,000 homes and 
apartments destroyed or heavily damaged by the storm.
  The metro New Orleans area has lost approximately 400,000 residents.
  The National Flood Insurance Program has paid out $17 billion in 
property damage claims in Louisiana alone, only a fraction of total 
damage.
  Hospital capacity in Orleans parish dropped in half immediately after 
the storm. In St. Bernard, there are still no hospitals open.
  The Army Corps of Engineers has only begun to raise sinking levees 
and deal with unfinished hurricane protection and flood prevention 
projects. But, they're only rebuilding the levees to withstand a 
Category 3 storm, Katrina's level. Prudent planning and common sense 
would dictate that they be raised to Category 5 levels to protect the 
more than two million residents along these coasts.
  I urge my colleagues to support and vote for this motion to instruct.
  Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I 
yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Without objection, the previous question is 
ordered on the motion to instruct.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion to instruct 
offered by the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Melancon).
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. MELANCON. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the 
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this question will 
be postponed.

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