[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Page 12102]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  WRDA

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, as the Presiding Officer knows, we are 
working on a bill we call WRDA, W-R-D-A, which is the Water Resources 
Development Act. This is important to the entire country because what 
it focuses on is obviously clean drinking water but also the kinds of 
infrastructure that protect public safety and make commerce and 
transportation possible.
  I commend the leadership of Chairman Inhofe, the Senator from 
Oklahoma, and Ranking Member Boxer, the Senator from California, for 
the work they have done getting us this far.
  In particular, I wanted to mention the application of this 
legislation to my home State of Texas. Texas understands that water is 
a precious resource and one that needs to be managed effectively. There 
is an old saying in Texas that whiskey is for drinking and water is for 
fighting. It kind of makes you chuckle, but it demonstrates the point 
that water is essential to life. It is essential to our agricultural 
community to be able to grow our crops and water our livestock. It is 
indispensable, but it is easy to overlook all the work it takes to 
craft good legislation that looks out for the whole country's water 
supply and also protects our ports, our waterways, and helps guard 
against flooding. These are just a few of the projects included in this 
bill.
  In April, this legislation overwhelmingly passed out of committee. I 
am pleased this bill serves as just another example of what we can 
accomplish when we put politics aside and work together in the best 
interests of the American people.
  I wish to mention that I am also grateful this legislation includes 
part of a bill that I introduced last spring called the COAST Act. 
Texas has hundreds of miles of coastline, and the State's location in 
the Gulf of Mexico makes it particularly vulnerable to hurricanes, 
storms, and other weather impacts such as flooding, storm surges, and 
high winds. I don't need to tell the Presiding Officer about that, as 
Louisiana recently suffered terrible flooding.
  In 2008, Texans saw firsthand when Hurricane Ike made landfall. It 
became the second most costly U.S. hurricane on record.
  Of course, because the area is so densely populated and includes one 
of our Nation's busiest ports and energy hubs, major damage along the 
Texas coast would likely be felt well beyond our State in much of the 
rest of the country as well, particularly the economic impacts. 
Safeguarding the gulf coast from the next major hurricane should be a 
priority not just to Texas but a national priority, as I say, both to 
those who live there and those who would suffer the potential economic 
consequences. That is why this particular provision, the coastal Texas 
protection provision in the Water Resources Development Act 
legislation, is so important.
  This is very straightforward. All it would do is require the Army 
Corps of Engineers to take advantage of preexisting studies and not 
have to duplicate those studies as a prerequisite to addressing this 
issue. The Corps wouldn't have to duplicate efforts but could instead 
build on the good work of leaders in the State that had already been 
done, so the Texas coast can get the protection it needs sooner rather 
than later.
  Fortunately, the Water Resources Development Act also includes 
projects that will benefit communities across my State, such as 
infrastructure improvements to help reduce flooding, provisions that 
make our ship channels more efficient and strengthen our ports by 
making them safer and better equipped to handle growing amounts of 
trade. I know there is a lot of discussion about trade, particularly in 
the Presidential election season, but I will tell you that trade is 
viewed as an unmitigated good in my State. We are the No. 1 exporting 
State in the Nation, and that is just one reason why our economy is 
growing faster than the national economy.
  We have learned a very simple lesson; that is, when you grow things--
when you make things--and you have more people and more markets to sell 
to around the world, it is good for jobs, and it is good for the 
economy. I hope that some of our leaders and those who aspire to become 
the next President of the United States learn from some of the lessons 
that we have learned from in Texas--that trade is good.
  That is not to say that with globalization there aren't some people 
disadvantaged, and we can address some of those concerns with funds 
dedicated to retraining efforts. But the fact of the matter is that 
more technology and more globalization are changing our economy and our 
labor markets in ways that we will never be able to reverse. So we 
shouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water and just turn our 
backs on the benefits of trade, which means we need to have efficient 
ports that are equipped to handle growing amounts of trade globally.
  In conclusion, on the Water Resources Development Act, let me say 
again that I express my gratitude to Chairman Inhofe and Ranking Member 
Boxer for this solid, bipartisan legislation. I hope it passes the 
Senate soon. I trust it will be out of the Senate by the middle of next 
week.

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