Congress Reviews Legislation to Improve Commercial Waterways
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WASHINGTON — The transportation committee in the House of Representatives examined , a potential preview for next year’s consideration of comprehensive legislation.
On Sept. 10, House lawmakers on the GOP-led panel pressed the leadership at the Army Corps of Engineers on the implementation of projects as well as studies approved in 2024’s Water Resources Development Act. The biennial law is credited with playing a vital economic role in guaranteeing efficiency along supply chains.
WRDA is designed as a tool for improving connectivity and funding for ports, dams, waterways, canals and locks. These Army Corps of Engineers projects often are mainstays in congressional districts nationwide.
“My goal,” said Water Resources and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Collins (R-Ga.), “is to get the [Corps] to complete its projects on time, under budget and correctly. I understand some of the budgetary problems the Corps faces, but these are not excuses for study delays, yearslong dredging backlogs, and mismanagement of repairs to vital locks and dams on our inland waterway system.”
Last Congress, the T&I Committee passed another Water Resources Development Act to invest in the nation’s water infrastructure.
Today, will get a progress report from . — Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure (@TransportDems)
Rep. Frederica Wilson (D-Fla.), the subcommittee’s ranking member, took issue with Trump administration directives that are linked with the construction and maintenance of large-scale water projects. She urged officials to reaffirm their focus on the Corps’ implementation of projects designed to mitigate flooding and improve commercial navigation.
“Simply put,” said the ranking member, “I question how the Corps is going to fulfill its mandate to address the navigation, flood control and environmental restoration needs of our communities with too little funding and too few Corps employees, and going against its own careful, science- and engineering-based practices.”
For Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, projects covered by the WRDA law would benefit from long-term robust funding assurances from Congress.
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“The [Trump] administration must request, and Congress must provide, sufficient funding for project planning, construction and operation and maintenance to realize the benefits of authorized Corps projects and activities,” he said, pointing to investments approved in 2021’s Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This bipartisan infrastructure law, he explained, dedicated about $17 billion for WRDA projects, which Larsen argued resulted in “a positive impact on communities and creating and supporting good-paying American jobs.”
Appearing before the subcommittee, Adam Telle, assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, told House lawmakers his office recently carried out a Trump administration priority specific to project streamlining. As he explained, “In July, my office made much-needed changes to our National Environmental Policy Act, implementing procedures that will reform, modernize and expedite the Corps’ environmental reviews, eliminate unnecessary delays and help ensure the growth of highly cost effective, reliable infrastructure projects across the nation.”
NEPA guidance is widely cited as a tool for promoting and ensuring environmental protection. NEPA critics argue its regulations are far-reaching.
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Nearly eight months into President Donald Trump’s second term, the congressional transportation committees have yet to schedule consideration of the new version of WRDA. Previous versions of the bipartisan biennial bill sought to expand access at water connectivity corridors and address last-mile port operations as well as boost operations at supply chains linked to water networks.
WRDA 2024 was enacted by President Joe Biden at the start of the year. Per background information from the House transportation committee, “WRDA projects have national, regional and local significance and help strengthen the nation’s global competitiveness, grow the economy, move goods throughout the country and abroad, protect communities, and create jobs. Congress has passed a bipartisan WRDA every two years since 2014.”
