Chairwoman Napolitano’s Statement at Hearing on WRDA 2020 Proposals

(WASHINGTON, DC) House Transportation and Infrastructure Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairwoman Grace F. Napolitano (D-El Monte) delivered the following opening statement during today's hearing titled: "Proposals for a Water Resources Development Act of 2020:"

Happy New Year. Today's hearing marks the next important step of this Subcommittee in the development of a new Water Resources Development Act for 2020.

This Committee has worked on a bipartisan basis to move a water resources development act every two years. We have been successful in enacting three consecutive WRDAs since 2014.

Through biennial enactment of WRDA legislation, this Committee has addressed local, regional, and national needs through authorization of new Corps projects, studies, and policies that benefit every corner of the nation.

I am committed to working with my Ranking Member, Mr. Westerman, and my Committee colleagues in moving a fourth-consecutive WRDA.

Since enactment of the Water Resources Development Act of 2018, the Corps has completed and submitted sixteen additional Chief's Reports to Congress. These projects encompass flood risk management, hurricane and storm damage reduction, navigation, and ecosystem restoration.

Today, Subcommittee Members have an opportunity to evaluate these Reports, as well as other project and study requests submitted by non-Federal interests through the 2019 Annual Report to Congress, under Section 7001 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2014.

The 2020 Annual Report is due to Congress in February and will also be a resource for potential project and study requests for the upcoming WRDA bills.

I am sure that Lieutenant General Todd Semonite, the Chief Engineer for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who is here to testify today, will ensure that the 2020 Report is submitted to Congress on time this year.

WRDA has become a product of its own success. Our constituents demand and expect that we move forward in developing this legislation every Congress.

It is why our Subcommittee's agenda for the first part of this year will be driven by the development of a WRDA 2020 bill.

I want to thank the Corps in advance for your assistance, and I look forward to working with Ranking Member Westerman and all my colleagues on a successful WRDA 2020.

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