President Bush is expected to veto the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 (WRDA) this Friday (November 9), despite numerous calls by AGC and a wide variety of interests in the water resources community.

Background:

• The programs authorized in H.R. 1495, the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 (WRDA), foster economic development, facilitate trade and commerce, aid international competitiveness, stimulate employment, provide water recreation opportunities, enhance agricultural and industrial productivity, and augment our national defense.
• This bill is necessary because new water resource priorities have been established in the wake of the Katrina catastrophe, and recent flooding in Ohio, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri by providing:
  • Additional authorization for the Florida Everglades restoration;
  • Enhanced navigation for the upper Mississippi, and;
  • A comprehensive plan to restore Coastal Louisiana.
• The bill also includes important reforms to Corps oversight that will help improve the effectiveness of Corps projects and help Congress establish long term goals for the program.
• WRDA 2007 is actually WRDA 2002, 2004, 2006 and now 2007 all rolled into one long-overdue measure. The seven-year gap in reauthorizing WRDA and the increasing need to invest in our nation’s water resources accounts for the $23.2 billion in project authorizations and this figure represents a small down payment toward covering the nation’s staggering waterways investment gap.
• Hurricane Katrina should be a lesson to us all: either you pay now or you pay later. These are projects that will determine whether dams break, whether levees are secure, whether water resources for this nation are available and whether we do important environmental restoration that has been left behind.

Take Action:

• Urge your Representative and Senators to Support the Override of President Bush’s Veto of  the Water Resources Development Act of.  Like the Transportation Reauthorization bill, WRDA reaffirms the government’s pledge to authorize, modify, and improve projects, programs, and policies protecting the nation from floods and keeping our waterways open to navigation. Congress must act to authorize new water resources development activity to fulfill these important missions.