Doris Matsui: “I thank the gentlemen from New Jersey and Indiana. Mr. Chairman, in many areas of the country, such as the communities I…”

“I thank the gentlemen from New Jersey and Indiana. Mr. Chairman, in many areas of the country, such as the communities I represent, Federal flood control projects are essential. Indeed, Sacramento, California, is the most at-risk city in the Nation for potentially catastrophic flooding. I am a strong supporter of the work done by the Army Corps of Engineers to protect our communities and strengthen our levees. It is therefore with some reservation that I rise to address a matter where the Corps' good intentions could inadvertently have adverse consequences. In its laudable efforts to ensure that flood control levees function as intended, the Corps has issued draft guidelines regarding the presence of vegetation on and adjacent to flood control levees that could, if implemented without close collaboration with State and local authorities and without flexibility to take into account site-specific conditions, result in the unwarranted and unacceptable loss of critical environmental resources as well as the misapplication of limited Federal and non-Federal dollars. On May 18, I introduced H.R. 5831, the Levee Vegetation Review Act, a bipartisan bill which is cosponsored by 30 of my colleagues. The bill directs the Corps to review its current policy, taking into account a broad array of factors, including potential regional or watershed-based variances to the national policy where appropriate.…”