{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases/video-capito-applauds-senate-wrda-passage-highlights-key-west-virginia-national-wins", "VIDEO: Capito Applauds Senate WRDA Passage, Highlights Key West Virginia, National Wins", "2024-12-18", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "WV", "Shelley Moore Capito", "C001047", "www.capito.senate.gov", "capito", "https://www.capito.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "Click here or the image above to watch Ranking Member Capito\u2019s floor speech\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee, spoke on the Senate floor about the bipartisan Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024 (WRDA), which passed the U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 399-18, and the U.S. Senate by a vote of 97-1. The legislation now heads to the President\u2019s desk to be signed into law.\n\n\u00b7 Click here to view bill text.\n\n\u00b7 Click here for a section-by-section of the bill.\n\n\u00b7 Click here to view the one-pager of WV WRDA wins.\n\n\u00b7 Click here to view the one-pager of national WRDA wins.\n\n\u00b7 Click here for a one-pager on WV wins in the EDA reauthorization.\n\n\u00b7 Click here for a one-pager on national wins in the EDA reauthorization.\n\nBelow is the floor speech of Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) highlighting key wins in WRDA, as delivered:\n\n\u201cI rise today in strong support of the House amendment to S. 4367.\n\n\u201cWhat my compadre over on EPW did not mention is the name of the bill. The name of the bill is the Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024and I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this important legislation.\n\n\u201cJust last week, the House approved this bill by an overwhelming margin of 399 to 18. This bipartisan legislation is supported by a diverse group of more than 200 stakeholders, which illustrates the positive impact that the legislation will have on communities across this country.\n\n\u201cI just want to spend a few minutes, kind of discussing the great work of my colleagues in Congress and the benefits that the American people will have by the provisions on this bill.\n\n\u201cAt the heart of the legislation is the Water Resources Development Act of 2024. The enactment of biennial water resources legislation over the last 10 years has been critical to addressing the nation's water resources needs.\n\n\u201cIn August, the Senate passed its version of this legislation by unanimous consent. That bill was developed based on more than 1000 requests, submitted by our colleagues on both sides of the aisle.\n\n\u201cFollowing Senate passage, Chairman Carper and I worked with Chairman Sam Graves and Ranking Member Rick Larsen of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to resolve the differences between the House and Senate passed WRDA bills.\n\n\u201cI'm proud of the agreement that we were able to reach, and I want to thank my House colleagues for being such great partners.\n\n\u201cI would like to highlight some of the benefits of the WRDA 2024 bill. It authorizes critical water resource studies and projects across the country.\n\n\u201cThese studies and projects will support navigation along our waterways and at our ports, will protect communities from flooding, and improve our environment.\n\n\u201cThis bill avoids one-size-fits-all solutions and maintains important flexibilities so that the Corps of Engineers and nonfederal partners can continue to address the unique water resources challenges across our nation.\n\n\u201cIt also contains directives to the Corps to develop comprehensive implementation plans for this bill, and for our prior WRDAs. This will enable the Corps to focus its energy and resources on fully implementing WRDA and prior WRDA provisions in order better reflect the intent of this body and this Congress, and previousCongresses.\n\n\u201cI also want to highlight some of the ways this bill will help directly benefit my state of West Virginia.\n\n\u201cJust over eight years ago, in June 2016, West Virginia experienced flooding at historic rates and led to tragic deaths and devastation.\n\n\u201cThis bill provides support for future projects identified by the Corps\u2019 feasibility study for flood risk management in the Kanawha River Basin.\n\n\u201cThe legislation also increases the ability of the Corps to carry out smaller projects for emergency streambank and shoreline protection, ecosystem restoration, and debris and obstruction removal, which are critical to many areas of my state.\n\n\u201cThe bill also directs the Corps to explore, or to expedite, feasibility studies for the Upper Guyandotte and Kanawha River basins, as well as to expedite projects in Milton, as well as the Bluestone Dam in Hinton, and this bill supports many drinking water and wastewater projects throughout our state. WRDA contains similar wins for states all across this nation.\n\n\u201cI'm also glad to see that as part of this project, the Economic Development Reauthorization Act of 2024.\n\n\u201cThe Economic Development Administration is tasked with facilitating economic development, and creating jobs in distressed communities across the country. While EDA programs receive annual appropriations from Congress, the authorizations for these projects expired in 2008.\n\n\u201cThe legislation reauthorizes EDA programs at fiscally responsible levels for fiscal years 2025 to 2029. The legislation reasserts congressional direction over EDA\u2019s funding decisions. It enhances our oversight at the agency. It preserves locally driven economic development decisions, and it ensures that funding from EDA is accessible to distressed communities.\n\n\u201cIt also codifies and authorizes dedicated funding for EDA Assistance to Coal Communities Program, which was one of my top priorities for this legislation.\n\n\u201cThis program ensures that communities in my home state of West Virginia, which were decimated by the downturn of the coal industry, have the resources that we need to recover and grow.\n\n\u201cThe bill also includes consideration of coal communities when EDA assigns EDA representatives. The legislation also reauthorizes the Regional Commissions that were expiring or have expired, and it expands the types of activities that those commissions can carry out in their communities and modernize their administrative procedures.\n\n\u201cThe bill also includes a provision to increase transparency and reduce waste across our federal real estate portfolio.\n\n\u201cAnd finally, the bill contains a provision that unlocks the significant backlog of funding in the TIFIA program, and provides the funding the states need to use for transportation funding. It also includes provisions to prevent the backlog from occurring in the future.\n\n\u201cIn closing, I would really like to take a minute to thank the staff, and my Chairman, Chairman Carper, but I also want to thank the staff at the various federal agencies that have helped with this legislation, helped us formulate it, and also the House and Senate Legislative Council.\n\n\u201cAnd I would like to thank, as well, the staff at the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.\n\n\u201cI want to extend my appreciation to the EPW Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, led by Chairman Mark Kelly and Ranking Member Kevin Cramer, for their and their staff dedication to this.\n\n\u201cI also want to thank again, my friend, Chairman Carper. We\u2019ve worked together. This is our, I think, second WRDA a bill that we did together, and it's a fitting tribute to your decades of public service to have this piece of legislation named after you.\n\n\u201cSo from Chairman Carper\u2019s staff, I'd like to thank Courtney Taylor, John Kane, Linnea Saby, Nicole Comisky, Ryan Smith, Claire Shanklin, Jordan Smallwood, and Tara Kroft.\n\n\u201cAnd I'd like to thank my staff seated behind me, many of them, Adam Tomlinson, Murphie Barrett, Libby Callaway, Dan Linkowski, Katherine Scarlett, Rebecca Hatter, Dom Rupp, and Jack Cline\n\n\u201cSo, I strongly encourage my colleagues to support the House amendment to S. 4367, the Thomas R. 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