Were now going to move on from a series of questions. Ill start with you if i can. Many stakeholders who work with the corps of engineers have comment and complained a little bit about the process it follows from identifying a Water Resources problem to implementing a solution and can be long costly delays. For example, in the arid west, there are many water supply challenges that havent yet been solved such as removing sediment from reservoirs to providing more water supply capacity and effectively managing multiwater supply needs such as flood Risk Management, drinking water, irrigation, all from a single reservoir. So as a result, the water supply is becoming scarce and more expensive. Can you please share in any thoughts you might have to improve the corpss processes so that the water resource projects are operated more efficiently. Thank you, senator. We actually have a number of suggestion, but in the interests of time, im going to limit it to two. First improve the governmental collaboration between the corps and local governments. The corps has a lot of Technical Assistance that is very valuable to local governments. But the processes and permits that they have often prohibit or slow down projects from moving forward. And secondly, congress may want to consider doing requiring the corps to do a regulatory efficiency assessment of corps processes, and have the corps submit to congress the results of this with potential alternatives on how theyre going to address it. Thank you. And as you say, though, youre just going to share two. If there are additional ones youd like to provide in writing. We would be happy to do so. Thank you. Mr. Robinson as well as mr. Friedman, ports and inland waterways are very important to the lifeblood of the American Economy and our economic activity. Every year over a trillion dollars worth of goods moves through the ports and inland waterways from and to every basic corner of the United States and around the world. Can you talk a little bit more about the importance of ports and inland waterways and how their management impacts your ability to transport goods, allowing us to keep jobs at home and allowing us to more effectively compete globally . Senator barrasso, just speaking on behalf of the m carnes and from tulsa, oklahoma to muskogee, just in that segment of the waterway, 53 miles, there is more than 8,000 jobs. Theres been 5 billion invested, annual payrolls to the counties and to the cities are 320 million annually. In muskogee, which is a community of 39,000 people, most of them manufacturers in that community, and muskogee is a manufacturing town depend on the waterway. So they depend on the reliability of the waterway. They depend on the transportation cost savings for delivering and receiving goods on the waterway. Its critically important to the economy of rural america. Were not investing in the system like we should be. Therefore were encountering delays and not a good situation in rural america. Mr. Friedman, would you like to add . Yes, thank you for the question, senator barrasso. So ill address that from the perspective of the great lakes and the st. Lawrence seaway waterway system where were all interconnected as ports and we trade with one another both within the system domestically, and there is also of course the international st. Lawrence seaway where we connect to all parts of the globe. The partnership we have with the army corps under wrda to keep our harbors dredged is a critical lifeline for big cities like cleveland, detroit, chicago, as well as a number of rural communities. Its critical for agriculture, for heavy manufacturing, for steel making which takes place in cleveland based on iron ore which comes down from minnesota as one of the primary examples of the types of trade in our region. And then we have many cargos that flow in and out of the heartland through the st. Lawrence seaway, both exports from american manufacturers and imports like specialty steel that we rely on in the appliance Manufacturing Sector and other Manufacturing Sectors. So i think in total, the number for the entire system is on the order of 227,000 jobs both on the u. S. And the canadian side of the seaway and the great lakes. So making sure that we continue to get wrda right, streamline the process, authorize new projects and get to full use and full spend of the Harbor Maintenance tax is a critical priority for us. Thank you. Thank you. Senator carper . Thanks. Lets start off with nicole carter, if i may. Excellent testimony. Very helpful. A question for you if i could. Given our current operating environment, with recently passed tax reform which reduces revenues over the next ten years by about 2 trillion, crumbling infrastructure, its just as bad with respect to roads, highways and bridges. Complete with limited numbers of chiefs reports and a large backup of corps projects, what are the big issues we should tackle on the next Water ResourcesDevelopment Act . Thank you for question. In wrda 2014, congress established new ways for nonfederal entities to be involved in projects. And this has resulted upon an additional projects being led by nonfederal entities. In trying to understand how well are those projects and processes working for those nonfederal entities as well as delivering in projects would be part of the process to understand how to incorporate a corps projects into a larger investment package. Basically, right now that process consists of the nonfederal entities often providing the funds up front and essentially signing an agreement that upon the availability of appropriations they may receive some reimbursements. Gao recently did a study that identified that there are about 4 billion projects like this in the country. And that about 400 million has been reimbursed. But we dont know the total amount that requires to be reimbursed. How well those are working . Well, how well other agencies in the future want to make those investments and what they can expect in the way of the federal government partnering in those investments if they do choose to lead rather than wait for the corps. Thank you, thank you very much. I want to turn next to mr. Friedman. Thanks very much. Does the Cuyahoga River still catch on fire . No, sir. Were coming up on the 50th anniversary of that infamous fire, senator, and im happy to report that the Environmental Health of the river has been restored significantly. So were proud of what weve been able to achieve since that dark day. I was i stood in Ohio State University around that time. And we used to talk about fish fries up on the Cuyahoga River. The wrong kind. The wrong kind. A question for you if i could. By 2020, the total volume of cargo shipped by water is expected to more than double by what it was just 17 years ago in 2001. Ships continue to get bigger. We see more congestion at the docks. Larger ships require deeper navigational channels, as we know, which only a few u. S. Ports currently have. How do we ensure that ports are effectively able to distribute and receive goods as ships continue to grow in size is a policy, is it a policy issue . Is it a funding issue . Is it both . If it is a funding issue, how do we go about doing more with less . Okay, thank you for that question, senator. Ill try to address that. Yes, its certainly a funding issue and a policy issue both. As you heard me say earlier, apa is asking for 66 billion over the next 10 years to address many of those issues that you just spoke to, deepening water site projects such as deepening in order to keep up with the ships that are of course enormous today, as well as some landside projects to ensure that we have the intermodal connections so once that cargo comes off of that ship at a port or moves on to that ship, it can get to that port efficiently from an inland point. So we absolutely need a federal partnership. I would also point out that there is already what i would call a Robust Public Private Partnership in place because our port authorities work very closely with private sector Port Terminal operators and ship owners who invest heavily in our ports, are in partnership with our ports and with our federal government. So it will leverage the federal dollars will leverage additional private investment and go towards those sorts of Infrastructure Projects which there is no direct payback on. So we look forward to through this next round of wrda and this infrastructure discussion well be having this next year to ensuring we can put a plan in place to fund those important needs at our ports. In my opening statement, i mentioned that the corps faces a rather indeed a real sizable math problem as it tries to service roughly a 200 billion requirement. And more with the annual budget that hovers around 4. 6 billion. Think about that. Think about that. 200 billion requirement to meet and an annual budget that hovers around 4. 6 billion. Were just we know it costs a lot of money. We know how economically important it is in our country. Were just not spending the money. Were not investing the money. And we can do streamlining from now until the cows come home. Weve done a lot of smart streamlining. I think were prepared to do some more. There is good opportunities to figure out how to leverage federal resources, state resources for to bring in private sector resources. Were doing that right now with the extension of the port of wilmington. But at the end of the day, one of the things we need is for the federal government to do its share, to do its part. And i thats not something that requires a response from any of you. I think thats the 800pound gorilla in the room that is the 800pound gorilla in the room. Thank you. Senator inhofe . I think senator carper brought out something that is significant and is unique that is in this area where were trying to bring in private sector funding, we actually had to pass a bill and a provision into the law to allow that to take place. I cant think of any other place in government where you have to ask permission to let the private sector pay for something. That was something that was good. Mr. Robinson, i again appreciate your being here so that we can make it very visible to people that we have problems on this inland waterway. I can remember back when i first came to congress, i would go up through some of the Eastern States and see the problems theyve had with their old ports thinking, well, were pretty fortunate in oklahoma we dont have those problems. Well, now we do have those problems. Enough years has gone by weve outlived the lives of some of the our ports. And so we have to address that. We had a subcommittee meeting that i chaired not long ago on transportation and infrastructure. And someone suggested that in the cost share of the inland Waterway Trust fund, it should be changed in some way. One suggestion was from 15 from the trust fund and 85 from the general fund. Are you familiar with that suggestion . Yes, senator inhofe, i am. And i think there probably needs to be an adjustment. You know, the problem as senator carper acknowledged is not doing more with less. Weve been trying to do that forever. Its not working. We need to do more with more and do it efficiently and in a businesslike manner. Yeah, well thats and those of us who have been down there and observed the problems that we have in some of these relatively new ports that carry our goods and services. Our nations system directly touches 38 states has been brought out. Its not just the coast. Three of our ports go through senator boozmans state. And two more ports are in oklahoma. Now, in the fast act, for the first time, and ive been through all seven of them since 1987, that we were able to have a freight provision. And that freight provision left a lot of the authority up to the states as to how to how to expend that and so forth. So id ask the question, would allowing the states to use fast act freight funds on our waterways, if they chose to do it, would that be a valuable tool to address the issues and the needs of our inland states . I think so, senator inhofe. I think we need more tools. And that would be one of them. The question of course would be whether states who are so focused on their highways needs, roads and bridges, how much effort or expenditure they would allow from those funds for waterways. And the other question is what would they use those funds for . Would they use to it costshare new projects . If that were the case, thing is a real need to costshare projects there is not enough money in the inland Waterways Trust fund to do that. Perhaps the states are going to have to pick up a little bit of the load there. So, yes, i think that. Its not going to happen unless somebody does something. Thats exactly right. Youve got to get aggressive and come in with the state. Right. Decide what the alternatives are and then what percentage perhaps might be appropriate for that, because id look at sources. And i run out of ideas. Anyway, i think thats something we can do and something that doesnt affect us here in the federal government as much as it does in the state government. Well, and i also think, senator inhofe, the water structure financing act that the congress authorized in 2014. Right. Is another tool that could be used. Its a leveraged, you know, because the federal government is getting the money back. Its a loan. So i think thats another one of the tools at our disposal, the tiger program. Okay. And there is a variety. Sure. We can get together and decide what we want to do on the state level. Ms. Ufner, the counts ties and cities are facing a lot of crises when it comes to Water Resources and address these. I know other state, not just oklahoma, have some of these problems. In the city of bartlesville, oklahoma, the city is growing and in need of additional water storage. Now, we had water storage. And a result from one lake in that city. And as a result increased our the rates to the customers by over 100 . But when we tried to open up another one, and im not sure if youre familiar with this particular issue, but we went to the corps of engineers. And they increased they had a rate increase of 3,000 , which obviously that particular city of bartlesville was not able to do anything. When i ask the gao to investigate how the corps comes one their prices, they reported back that they couldnt because the agencys recordkeeping was so bad and varied, they could not actually study how the agency arrives at their numbers. Does that shock you . I almost feel like thats a trick question, senator. No, its not a trick question. Its a serious question. And now is the time to talk about it because we have new people coming in, and weve had a hearing already with the Civil Division to the corps of engineers. And they recognize changes have to be made. But not if we all sit around and keep quiet and dont talk about it. I think that you hit a strong point on the head there is a lot of information that is not available out there. And its something that we need to figure out and Work Together to do it. Yeah. Well, my time is expired. But thats something we need to address. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you, senator. Senator whitehouse. Thank you, chairman. I appreciate the panel being here. Particular welcome to mr. Friedman. Rhode island has two ports that were investing in and proud of, the port of providence and davisville in quonset. Were the home of one of the worlds best ship servicing agencies. So were keenly interested in ports. And im interested in your take on what Sea Level Rise infrastructure impacts our ports are looking at. I think our ports are keenly interested in and concerned about Sea Level Rise and what they can do in partnership with local state and federal government to enhance resiliency, as we heard mr. Cochran speaking to earlier. You know, i think we would look toward this wrda bill to increase our ability to work in innovative ways with the army corps of engineers. I think that you usually find that a lot of the new and interesting ideas tend to bubble up from those of us who are on the ground at our local ports and communities, and we need the ability to sit down with our Army Corps Districts and Work Together on those solutions. We are engaged in those discussions with the Buffalo District of the corps which oversees cleveland. Believe it or not, weve had some coastal resiliency issues in cleveland. Superstorm sandy did a tremendous amount of damage to our breakwater and other structures in our port. So were looking at ways to use dredge material for example to fortify our port. Is it fair to say that the concern of americas ports about Sea Level Rise goes beyond the actual seashore itself, that you can raise piers and seawalls and so forth, but if the sea is infiltrating through for instance Water Systems and bubbling up behind, if its flooding access roads that are necessary to get goods in and out of the ports, those are matters of equal concern to the actual shoreline itself. Is that correct . No question, senator. I think our ports are literally on the front lines of this issue and theyre very concerned about the upland impacts if the Sea Level Rises al well as being inundated being right on the docks. There is no question our port are focused on that question, and i think theyre all working very hard to figure out how do we mitigate going forward. Ms. Ufner, youre here on all counties, could you tell us what wur hearing from coastal counties about the infrastructure hazards and risks and problems and challenges that theyre seeing related to Sea Level Rise and storm surges and so forth well, its much even broader than Sea Level Rise and storm surges. Were definitely getting the flooding in the coastal counties. I also work very closely with our gulf states counties and parishes caucus, and especially with the hurricanes that have come through this past fall, theyre increasingly focusing on how to address those iss