Well, good morning. I call this hearing to order. Today were holding a hearing to highlight the importance of passing a new Water Resource Development act during 115th congress. Werta authorizes funding for the Civil Works Program. In order to write good legislation we must consider the effectiveness, the status of their implementation as well as our countrys future Water Infrastructure needs. They have jurisdiction over much of the waters infrastructure including locks and dams and ports. Prior congresses have traditionally passed on a bipartisan basis going back to 1986. Unlike other contentious issues, historically republican and democratic members have been able to Work Together and pass legislation. To put it another way, this is legislation that moves. It does so because regardless of Party Affiliation we understand these kinds of investments are far too important to our economy and security to fall victim to partisan politics. They represent a Diverse Group of communities with different needs. Our committee has members that represent baltimore maryland and alaska. Wyoming, wilmington, delaware. And millions of other americans expect us to do our job to grow economies and to keep them safe. When it comes to rural areas in particular, many depend oncor projects for their existence. Congress must act to make it easy for the core to prevent flooding and modernize levies. Those that cause the Big Horn River to flood small Rural Communities such as grabl, wyoming. Ice jams are a major Public Safety concern for towns that cant afford the out of control costs that come with flooding. And rural still face longterm supply and storage. Out west continue to lose existing space as a result of sediment build up. This is a big problem for Western State economies with significant ranching farming communities and enlarging energy communities. I believe the core and the burrow of reclamation need Work Together. Its my hope this committee will work forward to find solutions in a bipartisan way to meet our countrys infrastructure needs. Our nations ports, waterways are just as vite thool countrys economic well being. Goods, commodities go through these ports for export. In wyoming, it key component of making glass gets shipped out of the port of portland, oregon. We all have a vested interest in these ports. So i urge my colleagues to work with me in a bipartisan way to find these solutions in 2018. With that ill turn to the Ranking Member of the community of the committee for his comments. Senator, carper. We welcome all of our witnesses. Youre good to take time to share your thoughts with us and its a really important issue and an issue we might actually be able to work on together and get something done. In past years working with senator Barbara Boxer have been good at showing us how this is done. So hopefully we wont screw up a good thing and with your help, that will be the case. I want to say this is extremely important authorization given we do it about every two years. As we all know coastal issues are extremely important to delaware but as the chairman said in what i thought was a very good statement. You dont have to be on a coast, massachusetts or delaware to have a strong interest in this issue. It effects us all every day. But delawares economic reliance on the cores work is not unique. Over 99 of the u. S. Over sees trade volume and coastal chanls that the core maintains. Additionally the inland waterways and locks form a think of it as a water highway. Connecting waterways and ports and providing direct access and provide Critical Infrastructure for the military and work to reduce it risk to human safety and Property Damage from flooding. Flooding alone currently cost the United States billions annually. 2017 hurricane system illustrated, the nation needs to be a resilient one ready for the next storm or flood or drought event because they are coming. In fact just this week were told by ocean and atmospheric ed a ministration in 2017 total cost exceeded 300 billion. A if that seems like a lot of money, it is. A new annual record in the u. S. So clearly not a matter of if for the next extreme weather event is coming, a matter of when. The flood Risk Management activities account for 70 . But the core has or shares jurisdiction over many other critical Civil Works Programs as well. Including hydropower, recreation, Emergency Management and water supply. Unfofrp if thely in the mid1980s, funding for rehabilitation began to steadily decline. With this trend the cores actions have shifted to operations, maintenance, rehabilitation of infrustructure and a back log has continued to grow ever since. As a result much of the cores inf infrastructure is exceeding its life span. We have a couple graphics here. Its provided by our friends from the American Association port authorities. A busy chart but a good one nonetheless. And everyone should have at your desk a copy of this. But about 66 billion in investment and port related infrastructure is needed over the next decade to insure job growth. To insure that u. S. Job creation Economic Growth continues. I have another graphic also provided by the American Association of port authorities and as this shows investment in our Freight Network of ships, trucks and trains is essential to the safe and efficient movement of goods. And this serves as it backbone of our economy. Not just ships, barges, trains, trucks, its all the above and more. The American Association of Civil Engineers report card tells us a story with waterways receiving a grade of d. Deplorable. Representing an overall cumulative investment back log of nearly 140 billion and an authorized but unconstructed portfolio of another 60 billion. The core face as sizeable math problem as they try to service that roughly billion dollars. Match that up with the annual budget around 4. 6 billion. The math just doesnt work, does it . Clearly we have a lot of importedant work to do. We need to work in a bipartisan fashion. In a smart, Cost Effective efficient way leveraging green and gray infrastructure solutions. I look we all look forward to hearing from our witnesses. I have something i want to submit for the record. I want to submit for the record these letters of acclaim for the newest member of our committee. No, actually this information deals with our hearing material. But i just want to say to chris, welcome aboard. Senator harris came up to me yesterday and said im moving off your committee and i said i know were sorry to hear that. And she said im keenly interested in thei issues and want to be part of your extended family. But for attorney general and somebody you want to be on the Judiciary Committee if you can get there and shell still be part of our team. Thanks very much. Id like to welcome senator rand holland to the committee and since my mom grew up in maryland working at the summer job, i could tell you with two of you from maryland and this history that now we can make sure that the Chesapeake Bay is fully protected. Chairman, i will say no more. Thank you. Welcome to the committee. Were now going to hear from our witnesses. Were going to start with an introduction in a second but we have mr. Scott robertsson, the associate legislature of the association of counties. The chairman elect of the ass association of port authorities. The National Policies specialist and mr. Steven cochran who is the associate Vice President for coastal protection, restore the Mississippi Delta Coalition and i believe senator cassy is going to be here to help hsenator cochran. I appreciate that and also for having the presence of Scott Robinson here. He is hes spent a lot of time in this business and we become good friends. One thing, building a little bit on what he just said. Its not just the coastal states were interested in. We are, in oklahoma, americas most inland warm water port. Now the problem is nobody knows it and i remember when i was in the state senate many in fact in the 70s we conceived something we thought were going to tell the whole world were in oklahoma. And so the World War Ii Submarine veterans came in. They said if you can procure a submarine we can figure out a way to get it from texas to oklahoma. Were talking about a submarine. U. S. S. Bat fish. The length of a football field and all my adversaries were saying were going to sink inhofe with the submarine. And there it is in your port 300foot submarine that shows the world we are in fact an inland port. So anyway, scott, its nice to have you here. You have a tremendous background. Youve been at the point of muskogy for 28 years now with more than 1,000 acres of land in the jurisdiction the port is poised to continue its growth and provide several transportation options. Scotts been active in the waterway communities, serving on a variety of related boards and commissions including the National Waterways conference, the marine transportation system, arkansas, oklahoma Port Operators Association. So its great to have you here. Youll bring a lot of knowledge to this meeting and i appreciate it. Thank you very much for that introduction. Good to see you. I could spend my five minutes talking about you but i wont do that. Well extend dont feel limited to five minutes if youre going to talk but i want to remind all witnesses your full testimony will be made part of the official hearing record and except for mr. Robinson i would ask you to keep your statements to five minutes. It is an honor and privilege to testify before you here today bute americas infrastructure needs. Thank you for this opportunity to contribute my thoughts. I am, as senator inhouse said port of muskogee, ive been there since 1990. Ril its one of two public ports in oklahoma and one of five in oklahoma and arkansas. I commend the committee for the work it has accomplished through 2014 and 2016. I hope to illustrate further in my testimony, the absence of regularly enacted werta legislation between 2001 and 2013 caused serious harm along the mcclellan arkansas Navigation System which in the interest of time i will refer to as m carnes. It is a 445 multipurpose waterway that runs through arkansas and oklahoma at a cost of 1. 2 billion. It was the largest federal investment ever made in a civil works project. Connecting the two states, oklahoma and arkansas with domestic rivers, ports and terminals along the inland waterways of the United States and ports all over the world, via the port of new orleans and new mexico. In 2015 there was a regional impact study conducted and published documenting the impacts, 55,000 jobs, 289 million in taxes to the national economy. Youll find a copy of that in attachment 8 of my testimony. In attachment d you will find a letter signed by the president of the oklahoma arkansas Port Operators Association endorsing its priorities for the mcarns. You will find my the briefing we made to the congress and to stake holders and congressional staffers in attachment b and c. I would like to take a few minutes to talk about inf infrastructure for the mcarns and give a glimpse of the water structure needs. Number one, priority was modification of an existing structure near the confluence of the mcarns and the Mississippi River, the Arkansas River and the white river trying to come together. The court has to spend money to fix the problem. A solution is imperative. The permanent solution will soon some out of a core study. And costs shares by the state of arkansas. Once it stidy is completed, the melinda structure will face new start and cost share hurdles. Until then its at risk of failure. Number two, back log of critical maintenance. Theres a back log of deferred maintenance. 143 million of which is deemed critical. They define critical as having a 50 chance of failure within five years. In march of 2017 there were 42 such critical maintenance items. More alarming than that, the critical back log is growing rapidly. In his testimony in 2016, tulsa director expressed concern that the critical back log had reached 70 million. So thats twice as much today. The problem on the ncarns is no different than across the nation. We are fixing critically important infrastructure as close to failure as possible and in some cases after it fails and an on emergency basis. This is not an acceptable asset management, this is for failure. Before 2014 and 2016 the congress in section 136 of the energy and Water Development appropriations act of 2004 authorized the deepening of the mcarns from 9 to 12 feet. In the Water Development and appropriations act, 7 million was appropriated for the channel deepening. 5. 5 million was useds for design activities which reduced the project cost by a like amount. In 2009 the Court Expressed a 40 million capability but it never ended up in the president pfsz budget. Suffice to say being lost in the switch is not good. The committee can rescue the 12foot channel and restart the dilemma by including clarification language as follows. Congress finds that initial funding was provided and construction started on a 12foot navigation of the mcclellan Navigation System as directed in section 136 of the energy and Water Development aproepriations act, thereby meeting the new start requirements. According to the institute of Water Resources from 2010 to 2012, the army core off engineers provided a nationally economic net benefit of 87 billion in stimulated 27 billion in returns to the u. S. Treasury. 16 1 return in terms of economic benefits and 5 1 for the treasury. Waterways investment is a wise investment. If theres going to be a comprehensive infrastructure plan then my plea is that it not just be for roads and bridges but for waterways too. Not just for deep coastal ports and harbors but for waterways too. For efish nlt competitive movement of freight. To the extent waterway projects are favorably considered in such a plan and require private investment as leverage, then the Water Infrastructure created 2014 may be just the tool necessary to track such investment in projects for which the trust fund revenue are not sufficient to share. Wed be happy to answer any questions you may have. If you want me to tell some of the stories i will. Thank you very much. Before moving to ms. Effner, id like the invite senator cassdy, if its convenient to introduce your guest here today. The person, Steve Cochran is sitting behind me. I gather hes on the next panel but thank you for allowing me to introduce. And Ranking Member and other members, thank you for allowing me to introduce Steve Cochran. A dedicated louisiana servient. Hes worked for many years to restore and protect louisianas incredibly fragile echo system. The lake pauns train foundation, the Mississippi Delta Coalition and the Environmental Defense fund that makes him uniquely qualified to speak to the need of an innovative strategy to restore wedlands and restore coastal echo systems. Coastal louisiana is losing land as we speak. As we speak theres something on a google map that looked green and now would look like open water. It pose as serious threat to our state, to our communities and upon our state and nations economy. It is required our state to develop in a bipartisan fashion a comprehensive plan referred to as the louisiana comprehensive master plan for sustainable coast to restore louisianas coast based on sound scientific and modeling principals required to be updated every five years. While louisianas prepared to implement projects, the problem is the Environmental Review process challenges that threaten to stop these projects from going forward. Currently the average time frame for the government to approve a federal project is close to five years. Remember i said were losing coastline like this minute . We get five years to permit something and by that time theres been dramatic change. This time frame is unacceptable given the magnitude of the threat to the louisianas coastline. Revising the permeating approach for the core, particularly when multiple agencies are involved is critical so they focus on ways to expedite consideration of longterm echo system projects, rather than maintain the regulatory focus that only seems to impede the projects moving forward. A werta authorized project offers a textbook example of the need to increase transparency and improve coordination between federal agencies. The conversion will take fresh water and to threaten wetlands on the western side of the river to build and sustain new and existing wetlands. Now, the existing regulatory hurdles and multiple federal agencies will likely lead to multiyear for this and other large Ecosystem Restoration project, resulting in the loss of more coast. I look forward to worki