Subcommittee on Water Resources & Environment

John Boozman, Ranking Republican

The jurisdiction of the Subcommittee includes the civil works programs of the Army Corps of Engineers and the clean water programs of the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, all aspects of the Tennessee Valley Authority and the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation are under the Subcommittee’s jurisdiction.

One of the primary issues for the Subcommittee is a Clean Water Act Federal Jurisdiction Grab that relates to how far up a stream and adjacent lands the federal government can reach to impose its regulations under the Clean Water Act. Proponents of this redefinition of wetlands –the America’s Commitment to Clean Water Act – are trying to expand federal jurisdiction far beyond its already broad scope. This legislation would require many land use decisions currently made by local governments and private property owners to have to go through a time-consuming and expensive federal permitting process. This big government jurisdiction grab would adversely affect the nation’s economy, invite costly litigation, and expand the federal government’s authority over state, local and private property rights. (more information)

Other Current Issues:

Water Resources Development Act of 2010 (WRDA): Last year, the Committee began working on a WRDA bill that would authorize new water projects carried out by the Army Corps of Engineers. In the past, the Committee has supported writing WRDA bills in every Congress to ready important projects for construction – especially those that provide an economic return on the investment, such as flood protection projects and navigation improvements to ports and waterways. This year, in accordance with the House Republican Conference vote in favor of a moratorium on earmark requests, Ranking Member Mica supported a withdrawal of Republican WRDA project requests. On July 29, 2010, the Committee approved a WRDA bill containing almost exclusively Democrat Member earmarks.

Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund: The Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund is meant to pay for maintenance dredging of America’s harbors so ships carrying our imports and exports can move efficiently in this global economy. The Fund gets its revenues from a tax paid by shippers. However, the Fund has a surplus of more than $6 billion, even though our harbors are maintained at their authorized depths and widths only a third of the time. Ranking Member Mica has asked the Committee’s Democrat leaders to move H.R. 4844, legislation that will require money collected each year for the fund to actually be spent for its intended purpose.

Levee Safety: In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the Corps and FEMA have been strictly enforcing rules and requiring levee owners to certify that their levees would perform as expected. Some locals have found it difficult and costly to comply with the required investigations and potential repairs in the short amount of time allowed. These areas run the risk that FEMA will ignore the existence of their levees and force their citizens to pay for expensive flood insurance. Republicans on the Committee are looking at ways to provide cities and towns the time and the means to get their levees investigated and, if necessary, repaired.