To extend through December 31, 2010, the authority of the Secretary of the Army to accept and expend funds contributed by non-Federal public entities to expedite the processing of permits.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4165) to extend through December 31, 2010, the authority of the Secretary of the Army to accept and expend funds contributed by non-Federal public entities to expedite the processing of permits.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4165.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4165. This bill would extend section 214 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 for another year through December 31, 2010. Section 214 is currently authorized through December 31, 2009.

The section 214 program allows local governments to fund additional U.S. Army Corps of Engineers staff time to expedite the processing of permits for infrastructure and ecosystem restoration projects. Section 214 was enacted by Congress because the Corps of Engineers' permitting process had become cumbersome for both the Corps staff and applicants as the number of permit applications rose.

By funding additional specific staff to work on specific, time- intensive permits, existing Corps staff are able to process significant current backlogs more quickly. Funding for additional Corps staff has resulted in a reduction of permanent wait times not only for the funding entity, but also for any individual or organization seeking a permit. As a result, local governments are able to move forward with infrastructure and ecosystem restoration projects.

Section 214 is currently being used by over 41 public agencies in 20 separate Corps districts. The city of Seattle in my home State of Washington was the first public entity in the country to develop and use this facilitated permitting process. The city has used the section 214 program for 285 projects representing over $1.1 billion in capital investments. Seven years of using the program has resulted in an estimated cost savings of $10.6 million. The average review time per project has been reduced from over 808 days to an average of between 47-166 days.

In a region where we must balance the most difficult environmental issues in the country with the second-highest commerce and trade demands of any region in the country, section 214 has become key to overcoming permitting delays and other challenges.

The authority granted by section 214 by the WRDA 2000 has worked well in practice. This authority needs to be renewed so the additional staff can remain on the job without interruption. Therefore, I urge the House to pass H.R. 4165.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, in response to the gentleman from Texas, I do want to say I'm extremely sympathetic to his position, and I fully, in fact, agree with the request that we make section 214 permanent. And I, along with many others, have asked for that consideration within the context of the reauthorization of the Water Resources Development Act of 2010. I am hopeful we can

work in a bipartisan approach to work with the committee's leadership to make Mr. Olson's, as well as many others who made the same request, to make that request a reality.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge everyone to support H.R. 4165, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in qualified support of H.R. 4165, to authorize an extension of the Army Corps of Engineers' section 214 program. Section 214 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 allows the Army Corps of Engineers to accept and expand funds provided by non- Federal public entities to hire additional personnel to process regulatory permits.

Mr. Speaker, I say I offer qualified support for H.R. 4165 because while this legislation is needed, my colleague from Texas (Mr. Olson) has offered a better piece of legislation. Mr. Olson's legislation, H.R. 4162, will authorize a permanent extension of the program--not a 1-year temporary extension offered by H.R. 4165. The Congress has been forced to temporarily expand this program five times since it was authorized by the Water Resources Development Act in 2000, yet the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure has heard from Members on both sides of the aisle supporting permanent extension of the 214 program.

I have heard no Member object to a permanent expansion of the section 214 program. The Corps of Engineers now has adequate experience in running the program, and recent Government Accountability Office observations concur with this assessment. Yet here we are again on the House floor moving a temporary extension of an excellent program.

Authority for this program expires on December 31 of this calendar year. If this program expires, the Corps will have to fire some regulatory personnel, reducing its ability to process permits in a timely manner.

I want to thank Representative Olson and Representative Larsen for their efforts on this issue. I urge all Members to vote in favor of H.R. 4165, but I do wish that we were passing a permanent, or at least a long-term, extension of the section 214 program today, not a temporary one.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Olson) whatever time he might consume.

Mr. Speaker, again, I do support H.R. 4165 and urge my fellow Members to vote for the bill. I appreciate Mr. Larsen. I know that he has worked hard on this in trying to bring the issue forward and provide a permanent fix.

My hope is that in the reauthorization of WRDA that we can all, as was mentioned, work in a very bipartisan way, because this is an entity that has worked very, very well. And I think all of us agree that it really is a success story. So hopefully we can work together, he and Mr. Olson and our leadership on the committee, so that we can provide for a permanent fix of the program, a permanent authorization, and not have to go through this every year.

With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague from Arkansas, Congressman Boozman, for yielding me time; and I rise today to express my disappointment that we are only considering a 1-year extension of the section 214 language.

Section 214 of the Water Resources Development Act of 2000 allows the Secretary of the Army to accept and expend funds contributed by non- Federal public entities to expedite the processing of permits through the Army Corps of Engineers. By funding additional staff to work on permanent evaluation, existing Corps staff are able to process significant backlogs more quickly. Hiring additional staff results in a reduction of permit waiting times not only for the local funding entity, but also for any individual or organization that makes an application with the Corps district.

In my district, the Harris County Flood Control District has used section 214 for the past 6 months to move forward with vital infrastructure and maintenance projects that have minimal environmental impact. According to a letter they sent my office, Harris County Flood Control District has ``already noticed a significant improvement in the length of time it is taking to receive our reviews and permits that are required to proceed to construction of our projects.''

In the past 9 years, section 214 has been extended five times. Two of these extensions were for less than 1 year. This program has been hamstrung by short-term extensions that discourage both Corps districts and local public entities from participating. And today, we again add to the uncertainty of this program by extending it for 1 additional year with no guarantee of continuing it past that.

I sponsored legislation that would make section 214 authority permanent and ensure non-Federal project sponsors have the ability to move forward with vital water resources infrastructure projects and maintenance more efficiently year after year.

My bill is ready for consideration; but, instead, we are considering another short-term extension.

I will reluctantly support this 1-year extension but hope that as we move forward with the debate on the Water Resources Development Act that we can have a serious conversation about making this provision permanent. Non-Federal project sponsors need to be able to count on the longevity of section 214 in order to make the most out of it.

Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support H.R. 4165, a bill to extend authority of the Secretary of the Army to accept funds from non-Federal public entities for the consideration of permits under the Clean Water Act and the Rivers and Harbor Act of 1899.

This language is modeled after language included in the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 that included a short-term extension of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, corps, section 214 permit review authority. That authority expires at the end of the current calendar year, and this legislation will continue the program through the end of December 2010.

I have been carefully monitoring the implementation of this authority. While this authority is very popular for the local public entities that have used it, we need to ensure that this authority does not affect the objectivity of the regulator.

In May 2007, the Government Accountability Office, GAO, issued a report, upon my request, which expressed concern with the overall implementation of the section 214 authority. This report recommended several improvements to increase the overall transparency and impartiality of corps' permit reviews conducted with outside funds.

Earlier this year, I requested GAO to reevaluate whether these recommendations had been implemented by the corps. In November, the staff of the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment received a briefing by GAO that suggested additional improvements to the program were still warranted.

As a track record of implementation develops, the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, committee, will have an opportunity to further review the implementation of this authority, and ensure that the corps' review of permit applications is a fair and equitable process.

The committee will further consider this issue next year during its development of the Water Resource Development Act. However, because that process will take place after the existing program authority expires, it is appropriate that we provide for an additional, short- term extension of the section 214 authority.

I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 4165.

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 4165, which was received from the House.

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