[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 45 (Wednesday, March 15, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Page S1839]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        PETITIONS AND MEMORIALS

  The following petition or memorial was laid before the Senate and was 
referred or ordered to lie on the table as indicated:

       POM-11. A concurrent resolution adopted by the Legislature 
     of the State of Louisiana memorializing the United States 
     Congress to recognize that the Louisiana coastal area is an 
     area in crisis and to enact federal regulatory reform and 
     disaster recovery regulations that minimize delays in the 
     processes by which the state of Louisiana responds to the 
     crises faced as a result of coastal land loss and natural 
     disasters; to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.

                   House Concurrent Resolution No. 4

       Whereas, the citizens of Louisiana are no strangers to 
     natural disasters and have been heavily involved in the fight 
     for flood protection infrastructure that will protect our 
     vital region, home to two million people who live and work at 
     the epicenter of our nation's valuable energy, wetlands, and 
     seafood resources; and
       Whereas, Louisiana's three million acres of wetlands are 
     lost at the rate of about sixteen square miles per year, but 
     reducing these losses is proving to be very difficult and 
     extremely costly; and
       Whereas, Louisiana's wetlands today represent nearly forty 
     percent of the wetlands located in the continental United 
     States, but account for nearly eighty percent of the losses 
     experienced in the continental United States; and
       Whereas, many studies indicate that major shifts in the 
     course of the Mississippi River over thousands of years built 
     the land in south Louisiana through its delta building 
     process; and
       Whereas, man-made levees have contributed significantly to 
     the degradation of the wetlands with the disintegration 
     intensified by the channelization caused by the construction 
     of the Mississippi River levees and man-made canals; and
       Whereas, the seasonal flooding that previously provided 
     sediments critical to the healthy growth of wetlands that 
     sustain our deltaic system has been virtually eliminated by 
     construction of massive levees that channel the river for 
     over a thousand miles which in turn cause the sediment 
     carried by the river to now be discharged into the Gulf of 
     Mexico far from the coast, thereby depriving wetlands of 
     vital sediment; and
       Whereas, Louisiana's coastal area is critical to our 
     nation's energy security with half of the country's oil 
     refineries, a network of pipelines that serve ninety percent 
     of the nation's offshore energy production and thirty percent 
     of its total oil and gas supply, and a port complex 
     supporting twenty percent of all waterborne commerce vital to 
     thirty-one states; and
       Whereas, these valuable and necessary human activities such 
     as energy exploration, commercial and recreational 
     navigation, agriculture, and development during the past 
     century have affected the wetlands, directly and indirectly, 
     enabling salt water from the Gulf of Mexico to intrude into 
     brackish and freshwater wetlands and contributing to wetlands 
     deterioration and loss increasing the vulnerability of our 
     coastal communities; and
       Whereas, the state has committed extensive resources to 
     address this crisis, through the establishment of the Coastal 
     Protection and Restoration Authority tasked with development 
     of a state Master Plan to provide hurricane protection, 
     coastal restoration, the reduction of saltwater intrusion, 
     and improving hydrology throughout the coastal area by 
     allowing water to move between the interior and exterior 
     marshes of the system, including a mitigation plan that will 
     create an additional one thousand three hundred and fifty-two 
     acres of coastal marsh, and risk reduction benefits; and
       Whereas, the state has substantially increased its 
     financial commitment to the coast resulting in significant 
     progress on projects that maintain land and reduce risk, 
     however capricious regulatory requirements waste tax payer 
     money, delay or deny projects, and increase risk both to the 
     federal treasury and our citizens resulting in increased 
     construction and emergency response costs: Now, therefore, be 
     it
       Resolved, That the Legislature of Louisiana memorializes 
     the Congress of the United States to recognize that the 
     Louisiana coast is in a state of crisis and in need of 
     recognition by the President and the federal government, that 
     federal disaster attention and cooperation are acutely needed 
     to assist the state to better provide for the health, safety, 
     and welfare of the people who need it most, and to increase 
     federal investment in infrastructure that provides coastal 
     protection in coastal Louisiana; and be it further
       Resolved, That a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to 
     the secretary of the United States Senate and the clerk of 
     the United States House of Representatives and to each member 
     of the Louisiana delegation to the United States Congress as 
     well as the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and 
     Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) and the Federal Emergency 
     Management Agency (FEMA) to enable collaboration between the 
     federal, state, and local officials to clear regulatory 
     hurdles, and inform Americans everywhere about the value of 
     our critical communities, ecosystems, and our unique 
     hurricane protection and disaster recovery needs.

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