On the recordJune 18, 2019
I thank the gentlewoman for yielding, and I appreciate my friend from Louisiana's passion on this issue. Saying that the Corps has $100 billion backlog, it is not really the Corps' fault for that. It is our fault in that we haven't appropriated money. And if you look back through the years, the Bush administration, the Obama administration, and, currently, the Trump administration, always propose a budget that slashes and burns the Corps' budget. And it is the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Subcommittee that won't let them do that and keeps putting money back into it. Last year, the Office of Management and Budget issued a plan for reorganization of the Federal agencies that included moving the Civil Works program from the Army Corps of Engineers to multiple other agencies. Yet, very few details were provided to Congress. Congress was not consulted, and no statutory changes were enacted. Yet, some in the administration took steps to try to begin implementing the reorganization proposal. In response, that is why the language was put in last year's act, and that is why it is in this year's act. I will tell the gentleman that we have had this discussion many times with General Semonite, and he is a go-get-'em guy. When he is given a mission, he will do whatever it takes to get that mission accomplished. I like what he is doing.…
