WRDA Works for America’s Water Infrastructure By U.S. Congressman Bill Shuster
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MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER
PHOTO COURTESY OF HOUSE COMMITTEE ON TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE.
n October 23, 2018, the president signed into law through a U.S. port or along a portion of our 12,000 miles the America’s Water Infrastructure Act, a legislative of navigable waterways. Furthermore, domestically grown package that features the Water Resources or produced goods from every state, including grain, coal, Development Act (WRDA) of 2018. iron, steel, petroleum, and more, move by water, much of The enactment of WRDA 2018 marked the third such it in foreign trade. Shipping cargo by waterway is efficient bill signed into law since I became chairman of the House and also significantly reduces the strain on our congested Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in 2013. highways. I am particularly proud of the fact that one of my earliest The importance of our water infrastructure was recently priorities as chairman—returning Congress to the regular underscored in other ways as well. Congress utilized the 2016 consideration of a WRDA every 2 years—came to fruition WRDA law to authorize funds to address the deteriorating over the last 6 years. drinking water infrastructure in Flint, Michigan. These laws authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Furthermore, in light of the widespread devastation caused to study and undertake infrastructure by natural disasters in 2017, it is worth enhancements that strengthen noting that the Army Corps operates our economy, connect and protect and maintains approximately 700 dams our communities, and bolster our in the United States, and that over competitiveness abroad. 14,000 miles of levees are in the Corps’s Our WRDAs were approved with Levee Safety Program. Millions of overwhelming bipartisan support Americans and over a trillion dollars’ because they authorize essential worth of property and goods are infrastructure that all Americans and protected by these levees. businesses rely upon—the ports, dams, Another example of why WRDA inland waterways, water systems, works is that the 2014, 2016, and ecosystem restoration, flood protection 2018 laws authorized both water systems and more. resources and flood risk management Prior to 2014, Congress failed to pass improvements around the country, from a WRDA for 7 years, allowing plans California to Texas to Florida, and in Congressman Bill Shuster. for water infrastructure upkeep and many states and regions in between. modernization to sit on the shelf while These cost-effective improvements will their costs increased with each passing year of inaction. help improve the management of our nation’s water resources Thanks to a return to regular order, WRDA now works and protect people, industries, and infrastructure from for America. Here are just a few examples of why WRDA harmful flooding. In general, every dollar invested in flood works. protection provides eight dollars in economic benefit. Since 2014, Congress has authorized harbor deepenings The Army Corps’s missions are vital, but the agency can and improvements at the Ports of Savannah, Jacksonville, be notoriously slow. In each of our WRDA laws, we included Charleston, and Galveston, as well as inland waterway provisions targeted at steadily improving the Corps’s improvements on the Ohio and Arkansas Rivers. The Port efficiency and further expediting the project delivery process. of Savannah deepening is now 50 percent complete and will There are many other examples of why WRDA works, allow the port to attract the world’s largest container ships. and I look forward to the House Transportation and The Jacksonville project began in February 2018 and will Infrastructure Committee and Congress continuing to allow the port to triple the amount of its container business send these bipartisan infrastructure bills to the president every year. Army Corps reforms are allowing Charleston and every 2 years. M other projects to move ahead more rapidly and at lower cost. These are not local projects. Whether you live in Congressman Bill Shuster (R-PA) is the Chairman of the House Manhattan, New York, or Manhattan, Kansas, many of the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. goods you use every day find their way to you after traveling
