To amend the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 to clarify the authority of the Secretary of the Army to provide reimbursement for travel expenses incurred by members of the Committee on Levee Safety.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6040) to amend the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 to clarify the authority of the Secretary of the Army to provide reimbursement for travel expenses incurred by members of the Committee on Levee Safety.

I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous materials on H.R. 6040.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 6040, introduced by the ranking member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Mr. Mica, and the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Water Resources Environment, Mr. Boozman, makes a technical change to title IX of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007.

Title IX of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 establishes the framework for the creation of the National Levee Safety Program to enhance the safety of levees and those living in levee-protected areas.

In the 3 years since hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the Nation has refocused its attention to the safety and reliability of flood-control structures and how lives and livelihoods can be affected by their failure.

It is especially evident that to our colleagues from the States of Iowa, Missouri, and Illinois, who have been experiencing the challenges of flooding from the Mississippi River and its tributary system over the past few weeks. The Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment has held numerous hearings on the condition of the Nation's levees and other flood-control structures.

Throughout these hearings, one consistent theme was readily apparent, the condition of the Nation's flood control infrastructure is, at best, unknown, and in a few notable instances, is in desperate need for repair and upgrading. The subcommittee received testimony from noted experts in flood control infrastructure that of the thousands of miles of Federal, State, local, and privately owned levees, in this country little is known about the current condition, including whether levees were designed to meet current conditions or whether they have been properly maintained by the non-Federal interests.

Although rare, failure of flood control structures, such as levees, does occur, and has become more frequent in recent years, and actually, in the last recent weeks.

Levees are typically built in a certain location and to a specified height to provide a certain level of protection. However, the level of protection provided by a levee may change with time, due to natural or manmade changes. Natural changes may include land subsidence, sedimentation, vegetative growth in the floodway, or the potential implications of climate change.

Land use changes in an area such as upstream development, and the loss of natural upstream storage capacity, can induce hydrologic changes, including faster runoff that will reduce the level of protection provided by a levee.

Given the important flood damage reduction and development opportunities provided by levees, it is important for the Nation to understand the true nature and condition of our flood control infrastructure, as well as to develop a comprehensive national policy to address issues related to the construction, operation and maintenance of projects and other management techniques for flood damage reduction.

In that light, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure included language in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 for the creation of a national Committee on Levee Safety.

The committee would be chaired by the Corps of Engineers and would include experts from around the Nation, working towards a short-term recommendation to Congress for the creation of an effective and efficient National Levee Safety Program.

The House and Senate conferees on the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 agreed on the importance of soliciting the recommendations of the Nation's leading experts in levee safety to aid in the drafting of a future National Levee Safety Program. Whatever recommendations are made by the Committee on Levee Safety, these recommendations will be referred back to the Congress for enactment in future legislation.

It is my understanding that the Corps has been working towards the creation of the committee, including the identification of a broad array of experts in levee safety. Unfortunately, the Corps believes it has hit a roadblock due to the specific wording of the authorization language that has prevented the Corps from utilizing available funding to pay for the travel expenses of the committee members.

H.R. 6040 is a simple modification to the existing authorization language to ensure that the Corps can utilize already identified funding to pay these expenses so that the Committee on Levee Safety can formally be assembled and begin its important work.

I applaud my colleagues on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Ranking Member Mica, and the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment for volunteering to move this legislation through the House.

It is my hope that the other body can, also, quickly move this legislation to the President's desk so that the Levee Safety Committee can begin its important work and complete it later this summer.

I urge adoption of this legislation.

Madam Speaker, I submit the following for the Record.

American Society of

Civil Engineers,

Washington, DC, June 23, 2008.

Hon. James Oberstar,

Chairman, Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure,

House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Hon. John Mica,

Ranking Member, Committee on Transportation and

Infrastructure, House of Representatives, Washington, DC.

Dear Mr. Chairman and Congressman Mica: I am writing on

behalf of the more than 140,000 members of the American

Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to support passage of H.R.

6040, a bill to amend the Water Resources Development Act

(WRDA) of 2007 to clarify the authority of the Secretary of

the Army to provide reimbursement for travel expenses

incurred by members of the Committee on Levee Safety.

As you recall, ASCE was a strong supporter of legislation

to enact a national levee safety program in WRDA 2007. We

believe that it is essential to clarify that the members of

the Committee on Levee Safety be eligible to receive

reimbursement for their travel incurred as a result of their

volunteering to work on the Committee. The outcome of the

Committee's study undoubtedly will have an important bearing

on future legislative efforts to improve the safety of the

nation's levee systems.

Sincerely yours,

David G. Mongan,

President.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back and ask for support for this measure.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, we have seen in the gulf region and now along the Mississippi River what can happen when hurricane and flood protection infrastructure is inadequate or fails to perform. Yet more Americans are moving to coastal areas where the risk of hurricanes and floods is great.

In the south Atlantic region, the coastal population grew 51 percent from 1980 to 2000, and this trend is expected to continue. Along the Gulf of Mexico, the population has increased 38 percent from 1980 to 2000, and this trend is also expected to continue.

We do not know where the next hurricane or flood will hit, but we do know that many of our major cities, including parts of Washington, D.C., have a greater probability of flooding than did New Orleans.

For example, the City of Sacramento, California, has almost twice as many people as New Orleans; yet it has less flood protection than any other major city in America. Cities like Houston, St. Louis, and Miami also are at risk. We cannot treat citizens of these cities differently unless we have a policy reason that we can explain and justify to our constituents.

As we have learned from recent levee failures, our infrastructure is aging. What we know about the existence and conditions of these other levees we often learn when one fails or it is overwhelmed by a flood event. For instance, the State of California in 2005 declared a state of emergency in the Central Valley in anticipation of the failure of 24 levees. According to the State of California, it would cost more than $5 billion to make critical delta levees, but not all delta levees, stronger in the face of flood and seismic events in the Central Valley.

In the past, Congress has taken steps to ensure that the Nation's flood damage reduction infrastructure is properly inventoried, inspected, and assessed. In 1986, the Congress authorized the National Dam Safety Program Act to conduct an inventory and assessments of all dams nationwide. The National Inventory of Dams shows that 45

percent of all Federal dams are at least 50 years old and that 80 percent of them are at least 30 years old.

We know less about the status and capabilities of our levees. There has never been a national inventory of levees. Little is known about the current condition of both Federal and non-Federal levees, including whether these levees were designed to meet current conditions or whether they have been properly maintained by the non-Federal interest.

Over the decades, levees have been built by different entities, at different times, and to different standards. They have been linked together to provide a protective system, but with such a mixture of conditions, the true level of protection may be in doubt.

Over time, development has taken place behind some of these levees so much more may be at risk in terms of lives and economic resources.

There is so much that we do not know about the levees in America that we cannot be sure how safe our cities and towns really are. We need more information.

The Water Resources Development Act of 2007 included language establishing a panel to develop recommendations for a National Levee Safety Program. However, the Committee on Levee Safety is unable to meet since a drafting error contained in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 inadvertently keeps the Army Corps of Engineers from carrying out important work.

H.R. 6040 strikes the incorrect language and replaces it with language stating the Committee on Levee Safety can develop its recommendations subject to the availability of appropriations.

This technical change will allow the Corps of Engineers to convene the Committee on Levee Safety as soon as this bill is enacted.

With the recommendations that will come from this Committee on Levee Safety, the Congress can develop a national policy for levee safety and a program to ensure that levees are functional and safe.

I urge all Members to support H.R. 6040.

Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6040, a bill to make a technical correction to a Water Resources and Development Act of 2007 provision authorizing the Secretary of the Army, acting through the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, to establish a Committee on Levee Safety.

Title IX of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 authorizes the Corps to establish a committee of Federal, State, local, tribal, and private sector experts on levee safety to develop recommendations for a national levee safety program.

As the events of the last few years have clearly demonstrated, there is a serious concern with the condition of the Nation's primary structural flood control measures--the Nation's system of levees. These structures, which range from the Federally constructed and maintained levees along the lower Mississippi River and tributaries, to Federal, State, and local levees nationwide, protect our lives and livelihoods from the risks of flooding. Within the jurisdiction of the Corps of Engineers alone, there are between 12,000 to 13,000 miles of levees protecting everything from major metropolitan cities to towns and townships throughout the nation. Without a doubt, the health, safety, and security of countless lives depend on the resiliency and upkeep of these essential structures.

We have all witnessed the result of levee failure. Just 2 years ago, the flood walls surrounding three of the canals within the city of New Orleans failed, and the result was a major metropolitan city being underwater for days. Many of the communities impacted by this failure are still struggling today.

Just this past month, we watched as the rivers of the Upper Mississippi River and its tributaries overfilled their banks and resulted in the unfortunate loss of life, as well as thousands of families losing their homes, their cars, and their businesses to the raging waters of the Mississippi River.

Cognizant of the importance of the Nation's system of levees, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure included a provision within the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 to create a Committee on Levee Safety that would be tasked with developing recommendations for a national levee safety program.

The Secretary of the Army will establish the committee, and it will develop short-term recommendations to Congress for the creation of an effective and efficient National Levee Safety Program. The House and Senate conferees on the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 agreed on the importance of soliciting the recommendations of the Nation's leading experts in levee safety to aid in the drafting of a future National Levee Safety Program. The recommendations made by the committee on Levee Safety will be reported to the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.

It is my understanding that the Corps has been working toward the creation of this committee, including the identification of a broad array of experts in levee safety. Unfortunately, the Corps believes it has hit a roadblock due to the specific wording of the authorization language that has prevented the Corps from utilizing available funding to pay for the travel expenses of the committee members.

H.R. 6040 is a simple modification to the existing authorization language to ensure that the Corps can utilize already identified funding to pay these expenses so that the Committee on Levee Safety can formally be assembled and begin its important work.

I applaud my colleagues on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, Ranking Member Mica, and the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, Congressman Boozman, for sponsoring this legislation. It is my hope that the other body can quickly move this legislation to the President's desk, so that the Committee on Levee Safety can begin its important work later this summer.

I urge my colleagues to support the bill.

I ask unanimous consent the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 6040.

I ask unanimous consent the bill be read three times and passed, the motion to reconsider be laid on the table with no intervening action or debate, and any statements be printed in the Record.