[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 7]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 9153-9154]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 IN SUPPORT OF WRRDA CONFERENCE REPORT

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. SUZANNE BONAMICI

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 28, 2014

  Ms. BONAMICI. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my strong support 
for the conference report to H.R. 3080, the Water Resources Reform and 
Development Act, and to urge its passage. Across the country, my 
colleagues and I hear consistently across all sectors: invest in 
infrastructure. The federal investment in infrastructure has fallen to 
a paltry level, and our communities are feeling the tangible impacts of 
this every day. There are few issues we discuss here in D.C. that have 
such an immediate and positive economic effect in our districts. Not 
only does investing in infrastructure put people to work, it allows for 
the efficient movement of people and goods, an essential aspect of 
commerce, economic growth, and public safety. The failure to invest in 
infrastructure will threaten our global competitiveness and the safety 
and quality of life of our constituents.
  The nation's waterways are integral to the movement of goods. This is 
especially true in my home state of Oregon, where wheat and other goods 
speed down the Columbia River bound for export markets in Asia, and 
imports are loaded from ocean-going container ships to barges and sent 
up the river toward domestic markets. This waterway network must be

[[Page 9154]]

supported for our economy to thrive, and the bill before us today will 
allow the Army Corps of Engineers to continue the important work of 
maintaining and protecting these waterways.
  The conference report also takes an important step toward full 
allocation of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, which has for too long 
seen its dedicated funds diverted for uses beyond its intended purpose. 
In addition, the conference report includes a set-aside for small ports 
and emerging harbors, which will include many ports in Oregon that are 
located in areas where the economy has taken the toughest hit over the 
last five years. These ports can't compete for Harbor Maintenance 
funding alongside the large, deep-draft ports, but the legislation 
before us today gives them a chance to access vital Army Corps 
maintenance funding. This was a priority for the Oregon delegation, and 
we are grateful that Representative DeFazio was able to include it in 
the House-passed WRRDA bill and succeed in having it be part of the 
conference report.
  Another important provision included in the conference report allows 
non-federal public entities to provide funds to the Army Corps to 
expedite the permitting process, preventing the lapses in project 
approval and the massive backlogs that can result when Congress delays 
reauthorization of the program. This will allow local governments to 
move forward with important infrastructure and ecosystem restoration 
projects, and reduces wait times for all applicants waiting on permit 
approval from the Army Corps.
  Maintaining healthy waterways includes protecting the coastal and 
riparian ecosystem. This conference report makes a strong investment in 
ecosystem restoration in the Columbia River and Tillamook Bay estuaries 
in Oregon and our neighboring state of Washington. By increasing the 
authorization for ecosystem projects under Section 536, this bill will 
expand the scope of the work underway to preserve and restore vital 
fish and wildlife habitat. We must do more to bring back the stability 
and biodiversity that makes the Columbia River basin one of the lushest 
fish and wildlife habitats in the world, and this legislation is an 
important step.
  One specific ecosystem restoration program included in the bill is 
the Willamette Floodplain Restoration Study, which seeks to restore 
natural floodplain function to the region and improve flood storage 
along the river. In addition, the bill includes an investment in 
invasive species monitoring and prevention through provisions that 
allow the Army Corps to establish watercraft inspection stations and 
other preventive measures. This is an investment worth making. Invasive 
species threaten ecosystems as well as infrastructure, including the 
Pacific Northwest's hydropower system.
  One provision in this bill is especially important to a hard-hit 
community in my district, and I would like to thank the conferees for 
including it. In Warrenton, Oregon, the Hammond Marina has long been 
operated by the City of Warrenton, but the land on which it sits is 
owned by the Army Corps of Engineers. House and Senate conferees agreed 
to include language conveying ownership of this land to the city. This 
has been a priority for the City of Warrenton, which is prepared to 
improve the marina at Hammond Basin, a project that will benefit the 
economy of Oregon's North Coast. It will come at no cost to the federal 
government, and represents another provision of this bill that will 
help my constituents and, importantly, support economic growth in 
coastal Oregon.
  Another key provision of this conference report, authored by my 
Oregon colleague Senator Jeff Merkley, is the Water Infrastructure 
Finance and Innovation Authority (WIFIA) pilot project. This program 
will provide low-cost financing to state and local governments--along 
with tribes, corporations, and others--to undertake low-cost water 
infrastructure improvement projects. This proposal is widely supported 
by my constituents and groups across Oregon, from the Building Trades 
to the utility districts, and I applaud the conference committee for 
including it in this report.
  I still have concerns about environmental review provisions in the 
conference report, and I will continue to advocate for improvements 
that my colleagues and I tried to make by amendment when this bill was 
considered on the House floor. Attributing permitting backlogs to the 
environmental review process ignores the funding challenges that have 
beset the Army Corps in recent years, as Congress has repeatedly failed 
to provide adequate funding for the review of all necessary projects. 
Though more can be done to improve that section, the conference report 
includes compromise environmental review language from the bill that is 
preferable to the House version, and I am glad to see that change.
  The conference report before us today is a positive step toward 
robust, bipartisan investment in infrastructure development. This must 
be done to keep our country competitive and keep our goods moving 
efficiently on our waterways, and to protect habitat from the impacts 
of increased trade and transport. I thank the Committee Chairmen and 
Ranking Members for their hard work to pass a strong bipartisan bill 
and urge my colleagues to support final passage.

                          ____________________