{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hoeven.senate.gov/news/news-releases/hoeven-senate-passes-water-resources-bill-benefitting-water-management-flood-control-and-recreation-in-nd", "Hoeven: Senate Passes Water Resources Bill, Benefitting Water Management, Flood Control & Recreation in ND", "2024-12-19", "2024", "2024-12", "Republican", "Senate", "ND", "John Hoeven", "H001061", "www.hoeven.senate.gov", "hoeven", "https://www.hoeven.senate.gov/news/news-releases", "scraper", "Hoeven: Senate Passes Water Resources Bill, Benefitting Water Management, Flood Control & Recreation in ND\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Senator John Hoeven, a member of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Committee, issued the following statement after the Senate passed the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2024. The legislation includes measures Hoeven worked to advance to benefit water management, flood control and recreation in North Dakota. Specifically, the bill:\n\nEmpowers the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to better assist public entities with the design and construction of small flood control projects.\n\nRequires the Army Corps to develop a guide on the use of public-private partnerships (P3) for water resource development projects, with the Fargo-Moorhead region\u2019s flood protection project serving as a model for developing Corps projects more quickly and at a lower cost to taxpayers.\n\nThis builds upon Hoeven\u2019s efforts to advance the Red River Valley project as the first major Army Corps project to utilize the P3 split-delivery model.\n\nCalls for the enhancement of recreation facilities in Army Corps-managed areas, such as around Lake Sakakawea and Lake Oahe.\n\nThe bill stresses the importance of retaining recreation fees at the point of collection, so the funds are used for the operations and maintenance of the site, consistent with other federal land management agencies\u2019 practices.\n\nDoing so would allow its districts to plan local maintenance and repair projects, including at recreation sites in North Dakota.\n\nReduces the non-federal cost share for economically-disadvantaged communities receiving assistance under the Section 594 rural water program.\n\nHoeven has prioritized this program in annual appropriations bills to help smaller communities in North Dakota make needed improvements to their water and sewer systems.\n\n\u201cNorth Dakotans well understand the importance of managing our water resources, whether for flood control, reliable community water supplies, irrigation or recreation,\u201d said Hoeven. \u201cWe worked to ensure this legislation helps meet our state\u2019s needs, empowering the Corps to better assist with flood protection and water systems in small communities. At the same time, this bill helps ensure recreation fees stay local, while removing bureaucratic hurdles, to allow the enhancement of the recreation facilities available at Corps-managed areas, benefitting the communities and local residents that make use of these sites.\u201d\n\n-###-\n\nNext Article Previous Article", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:07:19Z"]], "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://www.hoeven.senate.gov/news/news-releases/hoeven-senate-passes-water-resources-bill-benefitting-water-management-flood-control-and-recreation-in-nd"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.512202899903059, "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"}