On the recordJune 7, 2022
I thank Mr. DeFazio for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to join my chair, Peter DeFazio, Ranking Member Graves, and the subcommittee's ranking member, my friend, Mr. Rouzer, and bring to the floor H.R. 7776, the Water Resources Development Act of 2022. The Water Resources Development Act is our legislative commitment to investing in and protecting our communities from flooding events, restoring our environment and ecosystems, and keeping our Nation's competitiveness by supporting our ports and harbors. Through the biennial enactment of WRDA legislation, the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has addressed local, regional, and national needs through authorization of new U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects, studies, and policies that benefit every corner of the Nation. We held four hearings in preparation for this bill, including a Member Day hearing. We had a formal process to receive legislative, policy, and project ideas from Members which resulted in 1,500 ideas submitted to us by Members, so that is quite an accomplishment for our staff to go through. I thank all Members for engaging with the committee on this bill and advocating for the needs of their districts. We were able to incorporate most of the requests from Members into the bill. I am particularly thankful that we were able to make a commitment in this WRDA--thank God, the fifth WRDA--to address the needs of Tribal and disadvantaged communities.…
