U.S. Representative David Hobson (R-Oh) Holds a Hearing On Fiscal Year 2007 Appropriations for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

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U.S. Representative David Hobson (R-Oh) Holds a Hearing On Fiscal Year 2007 Appropriations for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS: SUBCOMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND WATER DEVELOPMENT AND RELATED AGENCIES HOLDS A HEARING ON FISCAL YEAR 2007 APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE U.S. ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS

MARCH 2, 2006

SPEAKERS: U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DAVID L. HOBSON (R-OH) CHAIRMAN U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JOHN T. DOOLITTLE (R-CA) VICE CHAIRMAN U.S. REPRESENTATIVE RODNEY P. FRELINGHUYSEN (R-NJ) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE TOM LATHAM (R-IA) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE ZACH WAMP (R-TN) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JO ANN EMERSON (R-MO) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE MICHAEL K. SIMPSON (R-ID) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DENNIS R. REHBERG (R-MT) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JERRY LEWIS (R-CA) EX OFFICIO

U.S. REPRESENTATIVE PETER J. VISCLOSKY (D-IN) RANKING MEMBER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE CHET EDWARDS (D-TX) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE ED PASTOR (D-AZ) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE JAMES E. CLYBURN (D-SC) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE MARION BERRY (D-AR) U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DAVID R. OBEY (D-WI) EX OFFICIO

WITNESSES: JOHN WOODLEY, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF THE ARMY FOR CIVIL WORKS

LIEUTENANT GENERAL CARL STROCK, CHIEF OF ENGINEERS, UNITED STATES ARMY

[*] HOBSON: The committee will come to order.

You're lucky. My voice is bad, so I'm not going to do all of my opening statement. We'll put it in the record.

Thank you all for being here.

Today's hearing is on the Corps of Engineers, the first of several hearings that we're going to have before our committee.

These hearings are an opportunity for the members to learn in depth about the programs and activities of agencies in our jurisdictions. And while it's important for each of us to be concerned about the activities of the agencies in our jurisdictions as they affect our congressional districts, I encourage each of us to engage in more general oversight activity. And you're going to see us doing that.

Today, we have assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, John Paul Woodley, and chief of engineers, Major General Carl Strock, and their entourage, which is everywhere.

They're here to present the budget from the administration for the Corps of Engineers.

One part of this I want to talk about, I want to express my extreme frustration over the timeliness of budget justification reports to Congress. I don't think it's your fault. I don't know whether any of the seven people from OMB are here, any of them, but I hope they listen, but I don't think they will.

We received two copies of the budget justification Tuesday evening -- 42 hours prior to this hearing. Copies for the subcommittee arrived the next day.

The budget justifications received are incomplete. They do not contain a complete accounting of the '06 program. In addition, the Corps is routinely late on these reports, and if the administration wants the Congress to give respectful considerations to the president's budget request, it's time to start showing some respect to Congress.

We're going to have to have some discussions with the OMB people.

The one thing they did do a little better was at least the budget's a little higher, where it should be. And I've got a lot of other stuff on here that we could talk about.

Mr. Woodley, I need to ask for your assistance. We're going to be asked to move quickly and mark up the '07 bill sometime in mid-May. In order for us to meet this aggressive schedule, I need you to ensure that the hearing record, questions for the record and any supporting information requested by the subcommittee are cleared through the Corps and your office and OMB and delivered in final form to the subcommittee no later than four weeks from today.

WOODLEY: Yes, sir.

HOBSON: Now, this is going to be a lot of work, and they're going to have to cooperate with you. And if the don't cooperate with you or you're not getting cooperation, don't tell me on the last day. I'm asking you to tell me early. If I have to, we'll go down there and I will get those seven, for which I plan to do anyway at some point, and find out what the hell is going on.

We cannot run a railroad this way -- or waterway is a better way to say it. We can't run the waterways this way. And it makes your job harder, it makes all these people's jobs harder, and we can't them out doing the work for the American people.

I'll submit the rest of mine for the record, and I'll ask my ranking member if he has any comments.

VISCLOSKY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Some members may have to travel. I'll be brief and would have my entire statement submitted into the record.

But I would simply point out that last year hurricanes along our Gulf coast exposed a number of examples of inadequacy and neglect in our infrastructu...

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