Sen. Byron L. Dorgan Holds a Hearing On the Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation Budgets

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Sen. Byron L. Dorgan Holds a Hearing On the Corps of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation Budgets

SENATE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT HOLDS A HEARING ON THE CORPS OF ENGINEERS AND BUREAU OF RECLAMATION BUDGETS

MARCH 11, 2010

SPEAKERS: SEN. BYRON L. DORGAN, D-N.D. CHAIRMAN SEN. ROBERT C. BYRD, D-W.VA. SEN. PATTY MURRAY, D-WASH. SEN. DIANNE FEINSTEIN, D-CALIF. SEN. TIM JOHNSON, D-S.D. SEN. MARY L. LANDRIEU, D-LA. SEN. JACK REED, D-R.I. SEN. FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, D-N.J. SEN. TOM HARKIN, D-IOWA SEN. JON TESTER, D-MONT. SEN. DANIEL K. INOUYE, D-HAWAII EX OFFICIO

SEN. ROBERT F. BENNETT, R-UTAH RANKING MEMBER SEN. THAD COCHRAN, R-MISS. SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-KY. SEN. CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, R-MO. SEN. KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, R-TEXAS SEN. RICHARD C. SHELBY, R-ALA. SEN. LAMAR ALEXANDER, R-TENN. SEN. GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, R-OHIO

WITNESSES: JO-ELLEN DARCY, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE ARMY FOR CIVIL WORKS

LIEUTENANT GENERAL ROBERT VAN ANTWERP, COMMANDING GENERAL OF THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

ANNE CASTLE, ASSISTANT INTERIOR SECRETARY FOR WATER AND SCIENCE

MICHAEL CONNOR, COMMISSIONER, BUREAU OF RECLAMATION

[*] DORGAN: Good morning. We'll call to order the hearing. This is the hearing of the Subcommittee on Energy and Water. The Senate Appropriations Committee would appreciate all of you being here.

Today, the subcommittee will take testimony on the fiscal year 2011's budget requests for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and for the Department of the Interior. Testifying for the corps will be Jo- Ellen Darcy, the assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, Lieutenant General Robert Van Antwerp, chief of engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Testifying for the Interior will be Anne Castle, assistant secretary for water and science for the Department of Interior, and Michael Connor, commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. I appreciate all of you taking the time to be with us this morning.

General Van Antwerp, I know you are aware of the National Weather Service predictions of a very high likelihood of major flooding in a number of communities in North Dakota and Minnesota, throughout the Midwest this spring. I've already asked the corps districts that cover North Dakota to do as much advanced preparation as is possible and if the flooding is as severe as some predict, I'll be calling on you for a much -- much more help during the flood flight.

Fargo-Moorhead, almost everyone remembers the weeks in which the nation watched every single day as they've run on knife's edge wondering whether the dikes would hold on a substantial major flooding. And so we may be right back into that in just the coming weeks, and thanks for the work that corps is doing.

Regarding the F.Y. '11 budget, the president has talked about an overall discretionary spending freeze for F.Y. '11. That however has been translated into a 9.3 percent cut for the corps budget and a 2 percent cut for the bureau budget. In my judgment, those are the wrong agencies to be cutting during the current economic situation. The Recovery Act was a shot in the arm, no question about that. But we should be building on that effort with more robust investments in water projects especially, not returning to chronically underfunding our needs.

The corps and the bureau are agencies that we depend on to build our water infrastructure that moves our nation's cargo, to reduce the impact of flooding, to provide the irrigation water, to provide hydropower, and to restore our environment. And nearly all of the work is contracted to the private sector. It means that there are new jobs for our citizens when we get these projects up and running. Not only is the work of the agencies provides jobs now, but the infrastructure that is constructed continues to benefit the economy. It's an asset for this country for decades in the future, which then in turn creates additional new jobs.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the budget request ignores these facts and reflects the consistent underfunding that we've seen in too many prior budgets. The F.Y. '11 budget for the Corps of Engineers proposes $4.939 billion, which is $506 million below F.Y. '10 enacted of $5.445 billion. Not only is the F.Y. '11 amount less than what was enacted last year, it's 4 percent below what the administration proposed last year in their budget.

Secretary Castle and Commissioner Connor, the two major project accounts for the Department of the Interior under the jurisdiction of this subcommittee are the Central Utah Project Completion Act and Water and r...

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