Political Quotes

“I wanted to spend a moment or two talking about the Water Resources Reform and Development Act conference report, and I want to say to my colleagues, both in this Chamber and in the House, some improvement in the WRRDA reauthorization has happened, but it is not nearly enough. From 1986 to 2010, the average new authorizations were over $3 billion a year, and the average amount of money was $1.8 billion a year. So we have been going backwards all that time. In this report, they did deauthorize less than 10 percent of the $80 billion in backlogged projects. Their attempt to take some of the political nature out of it is a good attempt, but it is not nearly complete and will be gamed, just as we have seen in the past. What really hasn't happened in the WRRDA bill, and partly because they do not have the authority to do it, is to change the Corps of Engineers. There has never been a project the Corps of Engineers doesn't want to build, and there has never been a study they do not want to do, because what that means is their budget continues and their jobs continue. So we do not have that distinct independent voice we can rely upon because bureaucratic malaise and self-interest trumps it every time. There is another critical problem with this report. The inland waterways trust fund is out of money. We steal it every year. Like Social Security, the money has been stolen and spent. Yet they change the requirement for inland waterway repairs.…”