Eleanor Holmes Norton: “I thank my good friend for yielding, and I want to assure the ranking member that the program I am discussing does not…”

“I thank my good friend for yielding, and I want to assure the ranking member that the program I am discussing does not already exist, but it should. I rise today to express my strong support for the Coastal and Great Lakes Communities Enhancement Act, which includes the text of my bill, the District of Columbia Flood Prevention Act of 2019. I thank my friend Natural Resources Committee chair Raul Grijalva and Water, Oceans, and Wildlife Subcommittee chair Jared Huffman for including my bill in this legislation. This legislation would amend the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 to include the Nation's capital in the definition of ``coastal state.'' Our bill would correct an apparent oversight in the omission of the District of Columbia from the CZMA and would make the District eligible to receive Federal coastal zone management funding, including flood mitigation and prevention funds for the Nation's capital. Importantly, the District is located on two rivers, the Anacostia and the Potomac, which are tidally influenced and show tangible salt water effects and fish and are a part of an intertidal-zone existing between high and low maritime tides. D.C.…”