Water Resources and Development

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is a unique federal agency within the Department of Defense with military and civilian responsibilities. Under its civil works program, the Corps plans, builds, operates, and maintains a wide range of water resources facilities. In addition to its role in water resources development, the civil works responsibilities of the Corps include emergency and natural disaster prevention, mitigation, and response; construction and maintenance of levees; and water supply assistance.

Communities can request assistance from the Corps for certain resource needs; some of these requests can be carried out by the Corps under their existing authorizations, while others need to be authorized and funded through Congress. Periodically, Congress considers a Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which provides authorization for specific Corps studies and projects. If granted authorization, studies and projects are eligible to be funded at a later date through congressional appropriations. Authorization through WRDA is the first step in this process.

I have worked hard to fight for the needs of north central Indiana. Part of my efforts includes advocating for Corps projects that will benefit our economy, improve safety, and protect our environment. In doing so, my staff and I closely scrutinize every WRDA request that my office receives to ensure that it is a responsible use of taxpayer dollars. The congressional approval process is competitive; I do not submit all the requests I receive, and not every project I submit for approval is ultimately authorized and funded. My goal is to identify and support, to the best of my ability, those projects that would benefit north central Indiana.

Click here for descriptions of my Water Resources Development Act of 2010 authorization requests.