Sanford, Frankel Lead Letter to Urge House Vote on Water Resources Development Act of 2016

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 13, 2016

SANFORD, FRANKEL LEAD LETTER TO URGE HOUSE VOTE ON WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2016

WASHINGTON, DC - Today, Representatives Mark Sanford (R-SC) and Lois Frankel (D-FL) joined together in sending a letter signed by 141 other Representatives to House Leadership, Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy. It requests that the Water Resources Development Act of 2016 be brought up for a vote on the House floor before September 30, the end of the fiscal year.

“In our increasingly global economy, the shipping industry plays a vital role connecting producers and consumers. In fact, for the average American, 90% of everything we purchase was, at one point, transported on a shipping vessel,” said Sanford. “The Port of Charleston is one of the fastest growing ports in one of the fastest growing regions in America. Its ability to expand capacity and better serve customers is contingent upon a necessary deepening of the Charleston Harbor, which is one of many critical projects contained in the Water Resources Development Act of 2016. This letter simply urges House leadership to schedule a vote on legislation that supports our national and local economies.”

“The Water Resources Development Act will boost jobs with the Port Everglades expansion and protect the Everglades, a precious natural treasure,” Frankel said. “Our letter urging the House to act now and vote on WRDA demonstrates the strong bipartisan support for this major legislation that will invest in and promote our nation’s water infrastructure.”

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed the Water Resources Development Act of 2016 by voice vote in May. The legislation would authorize 28 Army Corp projects and is a slimmed-down version of what the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee passed in April. It is expected that the Senate will vote on their version of the bill this week.

 Below is the full text of the letter. A signed copy can be found here.

September 13, 2016
 

Dear Speaker Ryan and Majority Leader McCarthy,
 

Earlier this year, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee unanimously reported out of committee H.R. 5303, the Water Resources Development Act of 2016. We are writing to urge you to bring the Water Resources Development Act of 2016 to the House floor before the end of the fiscal year.
 

The Water Resources Development Act authorizes twenty-eight critical Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works projects across the country, strengthens the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, and makes a number of commonsense reforms to improve the management of water resources across the United States. Also, this legislation is fiscally responsible – as the cost of the bill is fully offset by deauthorizing projects that are no longer viable.
 

Allocating floor time for the Water Resources Development Act would also reflect a bipartisan commitment to invest in our water infrastructure and promote environmental restoration.  The bill’s navigation and lock improvements would help facilitate the $1.4 trillion of goods that move through American ports each year and the 600 million tons of cargo that move through our inland waterways. Continued investment in flood risk reduction and management will help mitigate the $28 billion cost in annual storm damage.
 

Finally, it is critical that Congress restore the practice of passing a Water Resources Development Act biennially. Regularly passing this legislation will enable us to take full advantage of new opportunities such as the Panama Canal expansion and to continuously invest responsibly in our aging water infrastructure. 
 

Thank you for considering this request. We look forward to collaborating with you to strengthen our water resources infrastructure and advancing this important and time-sensitive legislation to the president’s desk.