{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://graves.house.gov/media/press-releases/house-approves-graves-led-water-resources-bill", "House Approves Graves-led Water Resources Bill", "2024-12-10", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "House", "MO", "Sam Graves", "G000546", "graves.house.gov", "graves", "https://graves.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Today, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) by a 399 to 18 vote, sending it to the Senate for final approval before it lands on the President\u2019s desk. This legislation will improve the nation\u2019s ports and harbors, inland waterway navigation, flood and storm protection, and other aspects of the nation\u2019s water resources infrastructure.\n\n\u201cThis WRDA delivers critical water resource infrastructure improvements for communities across America \u2013 from ports to levees to navigation channels, and more. The bill also makes reforms at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to streamline processes, reduce cumbersome red tape, and get projects done faster. This legislation also keeps Congress on the schedule of regularly passing WRDA improvements and reforms every two years,\u201d said Chairman Sam Graves (MO-06).\n\n\u201cI\u2019m pleased to include multiple provisions critical to North Missouri, including ensuring that flood control and navigation are the top priorities on the Missouri River, while charting a new path forward for systemic flood control on the Mississippi.\u201d\n\nNorth Missouri priorities included in WRDA 2024 include:\n\nExpanding protections for levee districts and navigators on the Missouri River to ensure fish and wildlife experiments don\u2019t interfere with flood control and navigation\n\nAuthorizing an Upper Mississippi River Flood Risk and Resiliency Study to improve flood protection for communities along the Upper Mississippi River\n\nReforming the Army Corps of Engineers\u2019 policy for permitting broadband projects on Corps\u2019 property, making it easier to deploy broadband to communities where the Corps owns land, like Smithville, MO.\n\nDirecting the Corps to work more closely with levee districts and others to find beneficial uses for dredged material, so sand is used for strengthening levees, building roadbeds, and other productive uses, rather than being dumped back in the river\n\nImproving the permitting process at the Corps to help projects get done ahead of schedule and under budget.\n\nThe legislation also has the support of over 200 stakeholders. Click here for statements of support.\n\nWRDA Summary\n\nWRDA authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to undertake locally-driven infrastructure and water resources projects that also deliver regional and national benefits to strengthen the nation\u2019s global competitiveness and supply chain, grow the economy, move goods throughout the country, protect communities from flooding, and more.\n\nCongress has passed WRDA legislation on a bipartisan and biennial basis since 2014. WRDA 2024 maintains the regular consideration of this important infrastructure legislation, and it provides Congress the opportunity for input into the projects undertaken by the Corps.\n\nWRDA authorizes over 200 new feasibility studies for locally proposed projects and 22 projects that have been thoroughly reviewed by the Corps and have culminated in a final report to Congress with approval by the Chief of Engineers or the Director of Civil Works.\n\nWRDA also makes commonsense Corps reforms that empower the non-federal project sponsors, increase project transparency, and improve project delivery. Provisions in WRDA will strengthen existing alternative delivery processes and create similar alternative delivery methods within the continuing authorities program (CAP) for smaller projects. In addition, the legislation creates a new initiative to assist non-federal interests in accessing resources at the Corps to get new projects studied and constructed.\n\nClick here for more information on WRDA.\n\nAdditional Improvements in WRDA\n\nThe measure includes provisions to increase the efficient use of federally-owned office space, including setting occupancy standards, ensuring federal workers return to the office, strengthening congressional oversight and public accountability of federal real estate projects, selling certain unused federal properties, and saving money for the taxpayers.\n\nThe legislation includes provisions to address concerns raised over the past several years by state departments of transportation by redistributing unobligated balances under the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program to the states through the existing Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) program.\n\nFinally, the agreement reauthorizes and modernizes the Economic Development Administration and other regional commissions whose mission is to spur economic development in distressed communities across the country.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T22:13:55Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://graves.house.gov/media/press-releases/house-approves-graves-led-water-resources-bill"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.5119860656559467, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}