[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 128 (Wednesday, July 21, 2021)]
[House]
[Page H3764]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   INVESTING IN RURAL INFRASTRUCTURE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Lucas) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LUCAS. Madam Speaker, I stand today before this deliberative body 
to talk about the importance of rural infrastructure; more 
specifically, watershed and flood control infrastructure.
  Our Nation's watershed dams play a critical yet silent role in many 
of our daily lives. Across the Nation, watershed projects provide an 
estimated annual benefit of $2.2 billion in reduced flood and erosion 
damage and improving wildlife, habitat, recreation, and water supply 
for more than 47 million people.
  In my home State of Oklahoma alone, there are more than 2,000 
watershed dam projects that help Oklahomans meet a myriad of public 
needs: public safety, water supply, soil health, and fish and wildlife 
management, just to name a few.

                              {time}  1045

  In fact, the country's first upstream flood control dam, Cloud Creek 
Site No. 1, was built right in the backyard of my district in Washita 
County. Built in 1948, following the passage of the Flood Control Act 
of 1944, the dam allowed for the preservation of farmland, wildlife, 
and several municipal services.
  Fast forward to today, and many of our country's 12,000 watershed 
dams have exceeded their designed lifespan. Like so much of the public 
infrastructure investments across this country, our watershed dams are 
aging and need to be upgraded to remain safe and continue to provide 
benefits for generations to come.
  Seeing the need to rehabilitate many of our dams, in 2000 I authored 
the Small Watershed Rehabilitation Amendments which have provided 
important investments to help countless dams in need of repair.
  After more than two decades of funding through the Small Watershed 
Rehabilitation Amendments, more than $900 million has been appropriated 
for rehabilitating aging dams. In the 2018 farm bill alone, we provided 
$50 million per year in mandatory funding for watershed rehabilitation 
and management.
  I am proud to mark the 20th anniversary of the Small Watershed 
Rehabilitation Amendments being signed into law this past year, but we 
must not delay the continued need to rehabilitate and repair other 
aging dams and water infrastructure. These silent sentinels are vital 
to public safety, economic prosperity, community viability and must not 
be allowed to fail.
  We learned a lot of lessons 20 years ago in passing the dam 
rehabilitation bill. Now we must continue this mission as we debate and 
consider infrastructure legislation.
  Madam Speaker, to aid in these efforts, I include in the Record the 
brought forth report at damsafety.org \ smallwatershed.
  In closing, as Congress negotiates on how best to invest in our 
Nation's infrastructure, we must continue to invest in the 
rehabilitation of these aging public works.
  It is time to put the lessons of past appropriate investment to good 
use and build the capacity of a new generation to protect critical 
infrastructures for decades to come.

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