Finkenauer Celebrates Passage of Water Infrastructure Package

December 8, 2020
Press Release

WASHINGTON, DC – Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer (IA-01) on Tuesday voted to help pass the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2020 conference report. The package is the final compromise legislation between the bipartisan House and Senate versions of WRDA. Voting on the legislation is part of a bipartisan effort to pass this critical legislation into law before the end of the year.

The legislation will invest in key locks and dams important to Iowa, reform flood management policy, as well as fund improvements for flood mitigation.

“WRDA is critical for northeast Iowa communities, especially those whose economic opportunity runs through our rivers,” Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer said. “The same waters, however, also often flood our cities and towns. I am proud to have worked hard to ensure Iowans’ voices were heard as WRDA 2020 was crafted by the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, and now I look forward to seeing it signed into law.”

WRDA is the primary water infrastructure development package for the current Congress, authorizing funding and policy direction for the nation’s ports, inland waterways, locks and dams, flood protection, ecosystem restoration and other water resources infrastructure. The legislation also provides authority for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to carry out water resources development projects and studies, as well as policy direction for the Corps’ implementation of civil works missions. 

The Water Resources Development Act of 2020 was strongly supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for its authorization of critical navigation, flood risk management, recreation and environmental infrastructure projects. Earlier this year, Finkenauer received the Chamber’s “Spirit of Enterprise” award for her support of the organization’s bipartisan priorities.

Updating Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR):

Finkenauer secured several provisions in WRDA that will help Iowa communities, including updating the principles, regulations and guidelines for calculating benefit-cost ratio (BCR) used by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers when evaluating flood control and mitigation projects.

The change is a major step toward addressing inequities in federal funding decisions for flood mitigation projects that became apparent in the federal response to the 2008 flood that devastated Cedar Rapids.

The provision will ensure that additional societal benefits, such as keeping neighborhoods together and providing rural and middle-class communities with equitable flood protection are considered when evaluating the benefits of flood mitigation projects and help ensure federal flood protection is provided to whole communities.

Cutting Red Tape and Increasing Efficiency:

Finkenauer also added a bipartisan amendment during the committee markup requiring the Secretary of the Army Corps of Engineers to develop a best practices document that will be shared with local entities before they begin writing contract agreements.

The amendment will cut red tape and improve efficiency for communities like Cedar Rapids when working with the Corps on flood control projects and help reduce project delays caused by local governments being forced to rewrite contract agreements to align with Corps requirements. Improving the efficiency of the Federal bureaucracy and communication between local government and the Corps is critical to completing needed flood protection projects in communities across Iowa and will help local business contracting on those projects get more work done in Iowa.

Additional Iowa Priorities

Other priorities benefitting Iowa’s First Congressional District contained in the package include:

  • Increasing the federal cost-share for projects on inland waterways system to facilitate project completion and maintain the future efficient construction of important inland navigation projects like locks and dams on the Mississippi River
  • Expanding and streamlining the Beneficial Reuse of Dredged Materials program so that small and rural communities (defined by areas with populations less than 10,000) can better access these cost-saving materials
  • Improving awareness and adoption of natural infrastructure projects that have flood mitigation benefits, improve water quality, and retain stormwater runoff, such as wetland restoration, stormwater retention pond development, and floodplain management/improvement projects
  • Improving resiliency of crucial water infrastructure
  • Providing the Corps with greater flexibility to construct permanent mitigation features that protect small towns that have been repeatedly damaged from floods. 

Background on WRDA:

WRDA provides authority for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to carry out water resources development projects and studies, as well as reforms and policy direction to the Corps for implementation of its civil works missions. The Committee marked up this legislation on Wednesday, July 15, 2020.

Specifically, WRDA 2020 authorizes 27 Corps feasibility studies and construction of all 46 pending proposed projects with final Chief’s Reports within the Corps Civil Works mission areas, including navigation, flood damage reduction, hurricane and storm damage reduction, shoreline protection, and ecosystem restoration. Regular consideration of locally-driven, rigorously-studied, and nationally-significant water resources infrastructure is key to preserving our Nation’s economy, to protecting our communities and businesses, and to maintaining our quality of life. This work, typically carried out by the Corps, is made possible through enactment of WRDA. 

Congress has successfully enacted three consecutive bipartisan WRDAs in 2014, 2016 and 2018.