By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Congress is on the verge of reauthorizing the Water Resources Development Act, which guides federal regulation of the Missouri River and other inland waterways.
Congressman Sam Graves says the latest version of the act will reduce the red tape which has held up the rebuilding of levees destroyed by last year’s floods.
“It also allows for us to look at the levee system as a whole rather than just parts,” Graves tells St. Joseph Post. “And so, what that does is includes the non-federal levee components, allows them to access resources. Because, if you fix all the federal levees, but you don’t fix many of the levees that don’t have a federal component to it, you’re still going to have holes.”
Graves, the top Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, says reauthorization breezed to passage in the US House, mainly because members became well aware of problems in wake of the 2019 floods. It now goes to the Senate, which is expected to approve it.
“We can specifically talk about the Missouri River, but up and down the river, widespread damage. That always helps, too, when it includes so many more than just a few individuals, so many more members of Congress. They realize that; Democrats and Republicans,” according to Graves. “And so, that helps as well when it comes to getting something like this done.”
Graves says the revised bill cuts red tape which held up repairs to flood-damaged levees. It also allows levees to be restructured rather than simply returned to pre-flood conditions.
He is disappointed it stopped short of changing how the Army Corps of Engineers manages the Missouri River.
“It could go further. There’s always more that we could use and one thing is changing way the Master Manual is and changing the way the Missouri River, specifically, is managed,” Graves says. “We weren’t able to get that far, but we’ve made a lot of some baby steps and that’s always good.”