This perpetual crisis promotion prevents us from addressing real problems like child poverty, the childcare crisis, and helping older foster youth.

Their voices must shape our work.

These outcomes are appalling, and we must do more to help them.

Flooding is a recurring issue in eastern North Carolina due to frequent hurricanes, tropical storms, and heavy rainfall.

I hope this Committee will take direction from the Army Corps of Engineers, who requested this increase in authorization.

We all lose, and importantly each and every one of our constituents lose, if we aren't able to pass this bill.

if Dallas County does not receive an increase in authorization, this Congress would be responsible for an unacceptable waste of taxpayer dollars.

Unless modified in WRDA 2024, the disparity between projected costs reflect in IIJA funding levels and subsequent real world project costs threatens to jeopardize and delay critical ongoing and planned capital improvements.

Addressing these challenges is essential in safeguarding our communities and enhancing the resilience of eastern North Carolina against the detrimental effects of flooding.

I want to express my support for two projects under their administration and oversight in North Carolina's First Congressional District--the Tar-Pamlico River Basin project and the Princeville, North Carolina project.

I also request, alongside our Illinois senators, modification to the scope and authorization ceiling for Madison and St. Clair Counties, Illinois.

To that end, consistent with IIJA congressional intent, I request that the Committee adjust funding levels to ensure that the federal government continues to cover 100 percent of the cost.

I, alongside Senators Durbin and Duckworth, request that Congress directs the USACE to complete a Reevaluation Report for the East St. Louis, and Vicinity, Illinois Ecosystem Restoration and Flood Damage Reduction Project.

Mr. Davis. During a recent visit to Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, I toured a deteriorating physical fitness center.

If prospective servicemembers do not have confidence in the quality of the most basic, essential facilities, how can we expect them to enlist at a time of great uncertainty and mistrust in institutions like the U.S. military?

I have been told that service is the rent that we pay for living in a free and democratic society. Such has been the life and the legacy of Ms. Phyllis Smith, regional commissioner of Social Security for Region 5, who is retiring after 45…

Mr. Davis. Beyond raising the enlistment age, has the Air Force considered lowering eligibility standards to accept overweight enlistees and then training them to meet the old standard once they enlist?

It must expand opportunities for farmers and rural communities.

It must help farmers to meet increasing renewable energy demands.

It must expand opportunities to all who wish to farm, especially new and beginning farmers and farmers of color.

We also must build on the success of the conservation programs funded by the Inflation Reduction Act.

The farm bill must fight food insecurity by ensuring every household in America... has access to food.

This bipartisan bill expands and strengthens the existing USDA Rural Decentralized Water Systems Program to support low- and moderate-income households' installation or upgrade of water well and wastewater systems.

If you eat food, the farm bill matters to you.

Promoting Precision Agriculture Act of 2023.