Peter Visclosky: “I rise in strong support of the legislation. I would like to begin my remarks by indicating that I consider investing in…”

“I rise in strong support of the legislation. I would like to begin my remarks by indicating that I consider investing in our water infrastructure as a key component in disaster relief, that is if we can avoid disasters in the first place. We prevent harm, and we certainly save the taxpayers much money. Several years ago, perhaps, if we had made an adequate investment in water infrastructure, we might not have avoided the issue of spending more money in one city in this country in one year, New Orleans, than we did on every water project in the United States of America combined. In the omnibus bill that we have just considered, we have increased funding for the Army Corps over the budget request and over last year's level. However, despite the best efforts of the subcommittee, we are still $443 million below that provided to the Corps in fiscal year 2010. At these levels, we are not close to addressing the Corps backlog of navigation and flood control projects. That is why I am pleased today to rise in support of this bill that does provide $1.7 billion in Corps disaster relief funding. This has been an extraordinary flood season. Further, in August, Hurricane Irene caused significant damage. Assuming there are no additional natural disasters in 2012, this funding appears adequate to address damages within Presidential declared disaster areas.…”