By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves says federal money for federal roads will allow the state of Missouri to shift funding to rural roads, but Graves adds transportation is about more than roads and bridges.
Graves, chair of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, says his committee has jurisdiction over a wide variety of issues.
“Transportation isn’t just about roads and bridges,” Graves says. “My jurisdiction in my committee: we have pipelines, all the ports in the United States, all the inland waterways in the United States, aviation, rail, and, of course obviously, highways and bridges. And then on top of that I have all public buildings. So, everything from the Smithsonian in Washington to the USDA in Kansas City and everything in between.”
Graves, a Republican, is hopeful changes made to the Waters Resources Development Act (WRDA) by the U.S. House will make it through negotiations with the Senate. Those changes would prioritize flood control and navigation over wildlife habitat.
“And this idea that we’re going to manage the river based on fish and two birds and not manage it based on people’s lives and livelihoods and communities and businesses and power plants that depend on river levels is just ridiculous,” according to Graves.
Environmentalists, though, say Missouri River habitat must be preserved to protect the pallid sturgeon, the least tern, and the piping plover; all species believed to be endangered.
The Senate has approved its own version of WRDA. House and Senate conferees are attempting to work out differences and fashion a compromise to submit to both chambers in hopes of getting it to President Biden’s desk.
Graves defends his vote against the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill passed by Congress in 2021 when Democrats controlled the chamber and he was the ranking minority member on the Transportation Committee, contending the bill grew too large. Graves says the bill began as the reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Bill; ranging in cost from $500-to-600 billion. Graves asserts the bill got hijacked by Democratic leadership and grew far beyond what could be paid for through user taxes.
“Now you’ve got a $1.2 trillion bill that is not paid for and so I absolutely was not going to support that or vote for it, particularly without any input,” Graves says. “Now, what’s interesting though, is that bill still has to be authorized. So, all of those projects come through my committee and I get to make the decision on how that money is spent.”
Graves says Republicans and Democrats on the Transportation Committee were close to reaching an agreement on the bill before the changes got made by House leadership and Democrats in the Senate along with the White House.
You can follow Brent on X @GBrentKFEQ and St. Joseph Post @StJosephPost.