Tom Coburn: “I thank you for having this important debate regarding our Nation's aging infrastructure and for allowing this body to…”

“I thank you for having this important debate regarding our Nation's aging infrastructure and for allowing this body to discuss the merits of Corps of Engineers reform. As you know, I supported allowing this bill to come to the Senate floor for consideration. Congress has not passed a water resources authorization bill since 2000, and particularly in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, this debate is long overdue. While many attempted to derail consideration of this debate, I did not because I believed that we must have this discussion in the open. That being said, I have deep concerns regarding the legislation that is before us today. Specifically, I am concerned that we are missing a historic opportunity to incorporate the many lessons learned since the last WRDA bill passed in 2000. Consider the following developments that highlight the critical need for reform of the Corps of Engineers: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported in March 2006 that ``the cost benefit analyses performed by the Corps to support decisions on Civil Works projects . . . were generally inadequate to provide a reasonable basis for deciding whether to proceed with the project . .…”