Political Quotes

“together with my friend from Arizona, Mr. McCain, and my friend from Wisconsin, Mr. Feingold, I am introducing the Corps of Engineers Modernization and Improvement Act of 2002. ``Corps Reform'', as it is frequently billed, has been the subject of much heated debate over the last two years. In fact, the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 included a provision on independent peer review, requested by Senator Feingold. Since that time, it has become clear to me that we need to aggressively address a broad range of issue endemic in the Corps. That is why I am before you today, introducing this bill. The Corps has been the subject of ``the Fleecing of America'' too many times. My primary goal is to ensure that Federal taxpayer dollars are spent wisely, on sound investments that are in the national interest. Our bill achieves this goal by addressing the mammoth backlog of projects that plagues the Corps; changing the cost-benefit ratio that a project must meet in order to be economically justified; updating of the Principles and Guidelines; instituting independent review of certain projects; amending some of the cost-share requirements; and limiting the waivers of non-Federal cost-shares often granted to communities. It has been projected that there is currently a construction backlog of well over $40 billion in authorized projects, with annual appropriations for the construction account of the civil works mission averaging around $1.8 billion.”