Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, the ranking member was talking earlier about this extraordinary backlog of projects that we have within the United States Army Corps of Engineers to carry out important projects like flood protection, hurricane protection, and ecological restoration. We do, in fact, have a backlog that goes on for years and years. In fact, as I mentioned earlier, it takes us, in many cases, over 40 years to take a project from development through the construction phase. These are critical projects that, in many cases, save people's lives. Just recently in the State of Louisiana, we had an extraordinary flood event. Thirteen people lost their lives as a result of that event, yet there was a project, the Comite project, that could have tempered flooding in many of these areas. What our amendment does is it simply allows for non-Federal sponsors to bid to carry out the construction or other aspects of projects. It is a way to save money to expedite delivery. In my previous job, Mr. Chairman, I actually was the non-Federal sponsor for billions of dollars in projects with the United States Army Corps of Engineers. There were a number of examples where we were able to build the entire project for the one-third, or approximately one- third, cost-share estimate that the United States Army Corps of Engineers estimated the project was to cost, and we were able to do it in a fraction of the time. What this does, it allows for the non-Federal sponsor to carry out the project.…”