[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 149 (Wednesday, October 23, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H6689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         THE WATER RESOURCES REFORM AND DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2013

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
New Hampshire (Ms. Kuster) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KUSTER. Madam Speaker, I rise today as a member of the House 
Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition to express my strong 
opposition to provisions in the bill before us today that will vastly 
limit public input and curtail opportunities to save taxpayers money.
  The provisions I am speaking about in the WRRDA bill aim to decrease 
delays and help move projects forward, which sounds great in theory. 
Who doesn't want to remove bureaucrat red tape? But in reality, what 
the bill does won't actually fix the problem that holds up so many Army 
Corps projects.
  This bill would strictly limit the environmental review process that 
has proven time and again to save taxpayer dollars. The Assistant 
Secretary of the Army for Civil Works has even testified about this 
fact before the United States Senate. The real reason for projects 
being delayed is simply that the Congress authorizes around $20 billion 
worth of projects but then only appropriates the funds to cover just $1 
billion in projects.
  So let's not try to place all the blame on the environmental review 
process, a review process that has time and time again saved taxpayer 
dollars, preserved historic sites, and protected endangered species, 
all while producing better projects with more public support.
  I appreciate the bipartisan work that Chairman Shuster and Ranking 
Member Rahall have done to put together this bill. This is an important 
piece of legislation that we consider in this House today.
  Once the bill has passed in the House, I look forward to working with 
my colleagues on both sides of the aisle as we conference with the 
Senate to improve these provisions that will limit public input, 
increase taxpayer costs, and harm the environment.

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