[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 137 (Monday, September 12, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Page S5512]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 5039. Mrs. ERNST (for herself and Mr. Grassley) submitted an 
amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 4979 proposed by Mr. 
McConnell (for Mr. Inhofe (for himself and Mrs. Boxer)) to the bill S. 
2848, 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; which was ordered to lie on the table; 
as follows:

       At the end of title VI, add the following:

     SEC. 60__. GAO STUDY ON CORPS OF ENGINEERS METHODOLOGY AND 
                   PERFORMANCE METRICS.

       (a) In General.--Not later than 1 year after the date of 
     enactment of this Act, the Comptroller General shall submit 
     to the Committee on Environment and Public Works of the 
     Senate and the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure 
     of the House of Representatives a study of the methodologies 
     and performance metrics used by the Corps of Engineers to 
     calculate benefit-cost ratios and evaluate construction 
     projects.
       (b) Considerations.--The study under subsection (a) shall 
     address--
       (1) whether and to what extent the current methodologies 
     and performance metrics place small and rural geographic 
     areas at a competitive disadvantage;
       (2) whether the value of property for which damage would be 
     prevented as a result of a flood risk management project is 
     the best measurement for the primary input in benefit-cost 
     calculations for flood risk management projects;
       (3) any recommendations for approaches to modify the 
     metrics used to improve benefit-cost ratio results for small 
     and rural geographic areas; and
       (4) whether a reevaluation of existing approaches and the 
     primary criteria used to calculate the economic benefits of a 
     Corps of Engineers construction project could provide greater 
     construction project completion results for small and rural 
     geographic areas without putting a strain on the budget of 
     the Corps of Engineers.
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