By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Northern Missouri Congressman Sam Graves hopes to have new legislation in place this fall to guide management of the Missouri River along with the regulation of barge traffic on the river.
Congress approved the latest Water Resources Development Act, known as WRDA, in 2022. It comes up for renewal in September.
Graves, a Republican who chairs the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, wants changes. In particular, Graves wants to take decision-making out of the hands of federal agencies and give it back to local members of Congress.
“The biggest thing is, I want to go back to Congressionally-directed spending,” Graves tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “That is letting members of Congress make the decision on how the money is going to be spent in their districts.”
Graves insists federal agencies have emphasized environmental concerns over flood control and navigation even though the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers still lists flood control and navigation as its top priorities with others including irrigation and recreation.
Graves says the issue could be resolved if members of Congress had more say over how money from WRDA is spent.
“So, I want to get back to letting members of Congress make those decisions on the important aspects of the river and elevating those things like navigation and flood control,” Graves says.
WRDA guides management of the Missouri River and all other navigable rivers in the United States. It also regulates the barge industry and its various ports. It provides money for upgrades on inland waterways, ports, and various barge infrastructure.
While Graves pushes for a heightened interest in flood control, especially in wake of the 2019 Missouri River flood, he has gotten help from the state level. The governors of Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa have been meeting ever since that devastating flood, lobbying the federal government for changes in how it manages the Missouri River and for a bigger voice in decisions on repairing levees along the river.
Graves says the fact that the governors from Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa are speaking with one voice on managing the Missouri River has had a big impact.
“Missouri’s affected. Kansas is affected. Nebraska’s affected. Iowa is affected. All the states downstream for that matter on the Mississippi are affected by what happens on the Missouri,” Graves says. “The Missouri River, those four governors coming together and looking at the changes that need to be made and the devastation we see from flooding, that had a big impact.”
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