John Cornyn: “as the Presiding Officer knows, we are working on a bill we call WRDA, W-R-D-A, which is the Water Resources Development…”

“as the Presiding Officer knows, we are working on a bill we call WRDA, W-R-D-A, which is the Water Resources Development Act. This is important to the entire country because what it focuses on is obviously clean drinking water but also the kinds of infrastructure that protect public safety and make commerce and transportation possible. I commend the leadership of Chairman Inhofe, the Senator from Oklahoma, and Ranking Member Boxer, the Senator from California, for the work they have done getting us this far. In particular, I wanted to mention the application of this legislation to my home State of Texas. Texas understands that water is a precious resource and one that needs to be managed effectively. There is an old saying in Texas that whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting. It kind of makes you chuckle, but it demonstrates the point that water is essential to life. It is essential to our agricultural community to be able to grow our crops and water our livestock. It is indispensable, but it is easy to overlook all the work it takes to craft good legislation that looks out for the whole country's water supply and also protects our ports, our waterways, and helps guard against flooding. These are just a few of the projects included in this bill. In April, this legislation overwhelmingly passed out of committee.…”