{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.kaine.senate.gov/press-releases/warner-kaine-praise-final-passage-of-bipartisan-water-infrastructure-bill", "Warner, Kaine Praise Final Passage Of Bipartisan Water Infrastructure Bill", "2016-12-10", "2016", "2016-12", "Democrat", "House", "VA", "Tim Kaine", "K000384", "www.kaine.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Warner, Kaine Praise Final Passage Of Bipartisan Water Infrastructure Bill\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tSaturday, December 10, 2016\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\tWASHINGTON\u2014U.S. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine applauded final passage of the bipartisan Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (WIIN Act), also known as the\u00a0Water Resources Development Act\u00a0(WRDA), which authorizes water infrastructure projects across the nation. This bill makes investments in harbor dredging, maintenance of locks and dams, flood control, ecosystem restoration and other water-related priorities. Additionally, the bill includes a package of measures to address the drinking water crisis in Flint, Michigan, as well as steps to lessen risks for similar communities across the country with aging drinking water infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers\u2019 biennial infrastructure report card\u00a0gives Virginia\u00a0an overall grade of C- for the state of its water and transportation infrastructure.\r\n\u201cWe voted for this bill because it makes overdue investments in many priorities important to Virginia \u2013 dredging and port infrastructure, restoration of important ecosystems like the Chesapeake Bay, and resilience to flooding and sea level rise for large coastal communities like Hampton Roads and small rural ones like Chincoteague. This bill also devotes emergency funding to deal with lead-contaminated drinking water for the people of Flint, Michigan. We appreciate the inclusion of Virginia provisions we authored and applaud the bipartisan vote on this commonsense infrastructure bill,\u201d the Senators said.\r\nThe following list includes several provisions for which Warner and Kaine advocated that were included in the final bill:\r\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A study of Chincoteague Island evaluating the perennial flooding and erosion challenges\u00a0facing the region and examining options of how to fix these issues, how much they would cost, and how much the federal cost-share would be. With nearly 2.3 million visitors last year, Assateague Island National Seashore and the adjacent Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge are premiere tourism destinations on Virginia\u2019s Eastern Shore. Extreme weather events have occurred frequently in recent years, including last January\u2019s blizzard that caused some $725,000 in damage and nearly destroyed the recreational beach parking lot.\u00a0\r\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Reauthorization and funding increase for the\u00a0Chesapeake Bay Oyster Restoration Program, a successful public-private partnership among the Army Corps of Engineers, states, localities, and groups like The Nature Conservancy. This program has helped reverse years of declining oyster populations in the Bay by supporting oyster reef projects in key Virginia locations, such as the Rappahannock, Lafayette and Piankatank Rivers. The additional funds authorized in this provision will help Virginia and other Bay watershed states reach the 2025 pollution reduction goals laid out in the Chesapeake Bay Agreement.\r\n\u00b7\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Section 4013 updates an existing coastal resiliency program\u00a0to prioritize federal funds for projects in communities threatened by sea level rise while creating an interagency working group to coordinate data on sea level rise across federal agencies.\u00a0It also requires federal consultation with state organizations working to coordinate resilience investment across federal, state, regional, and local bureaucratic entities. This will promote more informed decision-making about sea level rise planning in key regions like Hampton Roads, while ensuring that resilience-related grants from multiple agencies are serving complementary objectives. This provision will also provide formal federal backing for state-sponsored task forces like the Commonwealth Center for Recurrent Flooding Resiliency \u2013 an interagency, cross-jurisdictional clearinghouse for Hampton Roads sea level rise planning co-led by Old Dominion University and William & Mary\u2019s Virginia Institute of Marine Science.\r\n# # #", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "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.kaine.senate.gov/press-releases/warner-kaine-praise-final-passage-of-bipartisan-water-infrastructure-bill"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8150190114974976, "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"}