Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce bipartisan legislation that aims to improve flexibility around compensatory and environmental mitigation for U.S Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works infrastructure projects. This legislation would provide the Army Corps with the authority to contract with a third-party provider for the full-scale delivery of compensatory mitigation for Civil Works projects. Compensatory mitigation refers to the restoration, establishment, enhancement, or preservation of wetlands, streams, or other aquatic resources for the purpose of offsetting unavoidable adverse impacts authorized by Clean Water Act section 404 permits and other Department of the Army permits. Not only does the Army Corps require Clean Water Act permittees to mitigate for discharges into U.S. waters, the Corps itself must also mitigate for impacts from Civil Works flood control, navigation, and water supply projects U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works projects often impact jurisdictional waters under the Clean Water Act or terrestrial and aquatic species which require mitigation offsets. However, since 2015, the Corps has started or completed an average of just 58 percent of its required annual mitigation, which means about 42 percent of Civil Works projects have been constructed without their impacts timely addressed through mitigation, according to annual status reports on construction projects requiring mitigation.…”