Robert Torricelli: “There certainly is no policy reason. In fact, each constituent project has passed a cost-benefit analysis, each has been…”

“There certainly is no policy reason. In fact, each constituent project has passed a cost-benefit analysis, each has been shown to be in the federal interest, and each is subject to the appropriate cost-share consistent with Water Resource Development Act policy. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey will fund the non-Federal share of each of these projects. Since the Harbor Navigation Project was authorized last year, the Army Corps and the Port Authority have been working to formulate a plan that would allow these projects to be managed as one in order to provide time and cost savings. They have recently concluded that doing this could result in as much as $400 million in savings to the Federal Treasury. But in order to achieve that savings, it is important that we begin looking at joint management of these projects as soon as possible. I ask the distinguished Chairman, if Senators Corzine, Clinton, Schumer and myself can demonstrate that the Army Corps could achieve substantial future Federal savings by jointly managing all four of these projects, would he assist us in our efforts to secure conference report language that would allow the Corps to manage these projects in this manner?”