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Senate Moves Quickly on WRDA Reauthorization
Long Overdue Measure Introduced and Reported from Committee in a Week
Enjoying strong bipartisan support, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee quickly reported out the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2005. The measure (S.728), championed by Senator Kit Bond (R-MO), authorizes more than $7 billion in Army Corps of Engineers projects over 15 years.
WRDA reaffirms the government’s pledge to authorize, modify, and improve projects, programs, and policies protecting the nation from floods and keeping our waterways open to navigation. Without Congressional action, no new water resources development activity would be authorized to fulfill these important missions.
A major priority issue for AGC contractor members, some of most critical projects included in the authorization include $3.38 billion for seven new 1,200–foot locks and an expansive ecosystem restoration program for the MississippiRiver basin and $1.9 billion to restore Louisiana’s eroding coastline, and includes authorization.
Congress is scheduled to reauthorize WRDA every two years, but debate over “Corps Reform” operations has held up the measure over the past five years. The last WRDA authorization was in 2000. Yesterday, debate was kept to a minimum when several Senators withdrew amendments that bogged down previous incarnations of WRDA. One amendment offered by Senator Jim Jeffords (I-VT) and Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) would have established an independent peer review process within the Office of the Inspector General of the Army. That amendment was defeated by voice vote.
House Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman John Duncan (R-TN) is working on the House version of WRDA. That bill is expected to look much like the $4.6 billion bill passed by the House in 2003.
AGC looks forward to working with Congressional authorizers to finally achieve passage of this long-overdue legislation. For more information, visit AGC's Legislative Action Center and click on WRDA Reauthorization.
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