Graves, Transportation Committee Advance Water Infrastructure Package

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Garret Graves (South Louisiana) and the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure advanced legislation today directly impacting Louisiana’s flood protection, maritime, coastal, environmental and other water resources-related interests.

The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2018 is comprehensive legislation that authorizes a majority of the nation’s water resources infrastructure projects and dictates how those investments are selected, prioritized and carried out. WRDA lays the foundation for the president’s broader infrastructure package as it focuses on our ports, inland waterways, locks, dams, flood protection and other water infrastructure that underpin the nation’s ability to generate economic growth, move goods throughout the country and beyond our borders, and better protect our communities and environment.

“How the government prioritizes, plans and ensures the completion of water resource projects is the difference between life and death in many cases. We have to refocus the Corps of Engineers on moving dirt instead of pushing paper,” said Graves. “With a $100 billion Corps of Engineers backlog, a water resources authorization is becoming a project death sentence rather than a path to completion.  This bill, together with the Disaster Reform and Recovery Act (H.R. 4) recently passed by the House, begins shifting from responsive bureaucratic delays to leaning forward, building projects, improving the resilience of our communities, improving our ports and navigation channels and restoring our coastal ecosystems.”

Click below to watch Graves discuss the importance and merits of the legislation:

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