Good morning. I call this hearing to order. President trump has made impr e improving our nations infrastructure a top priority and this is to highlight our infrastructure needs. It is critical to our nations prosperity. In personal meetings i have met with members of this committee both sides of the aisle and infrastructure is listed as a top priority because it is a driver of our nation aes econo and impacts every community. This community has a history of working together. I want to continue that tradition and has sweeping jurisdiction over our nations infrastructure. Our last meeting focused on highways and roads all within this committees purview. Recent rains in california and other western states highlight infrastructures and other structu structures, and dams that prevent catastrophic flooding in urban and rural communities. Earlier this month, 180 people were evacuated because of the dams in the United States. The potential dam failure is a concern to state officials and People Living down stream. Any future weather event could make the situation even more critical and it is raising questions about the readiness of our flood infrastructure. Damns across the dams across the country need to be mode modernized and maintained. We should consider the need to maintain and modernize these structu structures. Winter weather events arent just affecting california but across the west hitting towns big and small. These events include ice jam flooding along Big Horn River in anderson and gabriel and to the south, hudson, areas of the wind river reservation. This past month, the ice jam floods have damaged over 100 homes in a practices of molace 5,000 people. And blocks of ice sit for weeks on playgrounds and front lawns. It damaged water structures and Water Treatment plants to private parks and homes and Small Businesses that. They are regular occurrences harming small towns not just wyoming but from the dakotas to upstate new york. For these small towns the cleanup is an enormous burden it takes months to recover. In certain instances flooding could be helped by the army corps to help towns take the steps they need to protect their communities. We have jurisdiction over the modernization of infrastructure. Often times in rural states federal one size fits all rules can have absurd results on the ground. If moving a tree or pile of dirt can make a difference preventing a catastrophic flood, a town shouldnt have to go through a bureaucratic process to remove those features where the town floods yearly and red tape cut with peoples lives and property on the line always the case talking about flooding. Dams and levys are the most Common Infrastructure to address flo flooding. And including ice jams, launch in title one language in title one of the Water Resources act creating an army Pilot Program to create innovative cost saving technology to address the threat of ice jams. The Program Needs to be impleme implemented. Id like to noted in the past two water bills this Committee Gave authority to fema to address sufficient levys and m dams. Its time to implement these authorities and its time to know how to implement this infrastructure and building new infrastructure and reduce red tape and develop Life Saving Technology and new materials to prevent flooding. With that i want to turn to r k Ranking Member carper for his statement. Thanks, mr. Chairman. Thanks for bringing us together. We welcome all of you, glad youre here. You could be a lot of different places and important you be here. We look forward to your testimony and opportunity to have a good conversation. The chairman and i talk a lot about mike in zees 8020 rule, a senator from wyoming. He talks about the 80 20 rule, ted kennedy used to lead Health Education pension committee. I would say to him, how does the most liberal democrats and conservative republican get so much done to provide leadership to this committee. Mike said we believe in the 80 20 rule. I said whats that . Ted and i agree on 80 of the stuff and disagree on 20 . We focus on 80 we agree. Senator and i agree on a lot to invest wisely in infrastructure. Its not an especially partisan issue, as we heard last night in the president s state of the union address. Although it was preciously short on how to pay for stuff, which is always the challenge, how to pay for stuff. Toes spend the money, not so easy to figure out how to pay for it. Democratic senators focus on infrastructure. It appears too me were one of the few Senate Committees here talking about working on a bill in a bipartisan compete consecu compe compete comprehensive way. We feel the need to move forward on a comprehensive infrastructure package in a thoughtful way rather than ki kicking the can down the road which were pretty good at here. As a recovering governor i ask a simple question, how does this proposal, whatever the proposal of the day is, how does it create a more nurturing environment for job creation and preservation, what i ask. In addition something lincoln used to say what is the role of government. He replied famously the role of government is to do for the people what they cannot do for themselves. Wise words. One average citizens can make for themselves. Not only do the construction of dams and levees create jobs these investments also support local economies and help drive commerce and put us on a path to stability. One of the things businesses need most is predictability and certainty and not havoc it creates for the businesses. Its important we make investments because when dams and levees fail they can result in loss of life and economic destabilization. And economic devastation. As we work through this hearing in another infrastructure oversight and policy decisions, i think we will struggle with maybe two central points. One is, what is the rule of federal, state and local government in addressing these infrastructure concerns, and also are the three levels of government up to the challenge . Are the three levels of government up to challenge . Something called the Mckenzie Global Institute has a 2013 report you may be familiar with said we need to invest between 150 and 1 180 billion a year moe in infrastructure. Just to make up for years of underinvestment hindering our country on a multitude of levels from flimt Economic Growth to our personal safety. This looks at all components of infrastructure. This message of drastic need is easily applicable to what were talking about today, thats Flood Control. The same report found one of the best ways to invest and get the most out of our dollars is maintain existing infrastructure. That probably doesnt come as a surprise to any of you. Whether a bridge or dam, our government has a fundamental responsibility to make sure those structures are sound and continue to serve for their intended purpose including impacting lives impacted by the bridge or dams very existence. The infrastructure is critical because the direct jobs we create from the construction work and displaced workers we can bring back into our workforce. They want to work and can do this work. Lets turn them loose. Just as important are the lives and president protected by these proje projects. Particularly looking forward to hearing from our friends from california, and his experiences about the oval dam and life Safety Program. I think its critically important we learn from each others experience and take that shared knowledge forward from through the legislative process. In closing the Critical Infrastructure of our country is aging in need of criticalc Capital Investment to help our economy grow, the Civil Engineers gave us a d as in dog, to roads and Drinking Water and wastewater and infrastructure and waterways, levees received a d minus, ports a c, bridges about a c plus. As we hear testimony im particularly interested how the witnesses think about the roles in government and gaps that need to be filled relates to obta obtaining investing in and Critical Infrastructure as dams and levees. It has been an overarching theme in many of our conversations and sure we will continue that conversation today and i also hope to hear thoughts on concept of natural Infrastructure Protection as it relates to flood safety. Finally while traditional roads and infrastructure are important to our economy we need natural infrastructure such as shorelines and wetland aqua systems and thank you for all you dine that regard, without these protections the infrastructure significantly increases and in many cases become unmanageable. Three finallies, im interested how the federal government can be more efficient with our current funding streams and get the most of every dollar of federal investment and want to make sure were doing the most critical investments to maintain the assets we have first before building new assets that we cant afford. No one size fit all approach to solve our problems. I encourage under the leadership of this man we will. Mr. Chairman, with that, i ask to consent then testimony of martin rivers be admitted without objection. Thank you. Can i invite you to please introduce your guest to the committee . Thank you, mr. Chair and i want to thank you as well for holding this important hearing today. Iowan on the panel today. I am thank you for working with me to extend an invitation to a great iowan on the panel today. I am pleased to introduce the mayor of cedar rapids, mr. Ron corbett to this committee. Mayor corbett has been working tirelessly on behalf of the citizens of cedar rapids secu securing state and local funding to rebuilt his community after the 2008 flood. And what they have done is truly impressive. Critical assistance from the corps is needed to help cedar rapids management project something mayor corbett has been leading the charge on for years now. Cedar rapids and communities across my state are in need of core assistance but run into hurdles trying to navigate the bureaucracy between the corps and omb. Its an issue were trying to work through and resolve not just for the people of cedar rapids, many communities across the state of iowa and the nation. We continue working through this and note the city of des moines also has important levee work that needs to be done and cedar falls has been working on a 408 application still isnt approved. In addition how the Current System is set up to calculate the benefit of flood programs places iowans at a disadvantage. The current methods the corps and administration uses prioritizes beaches in front of multimillion dollar oceanfront homes over protecting the people of cedar rapids because the calculations are based on property value. Cedar rapids is iowas second largest city. Its success is critical to the economic wellbeing of the entire state. They have endured two significant flooding events in eight years that have cost billions of dollars in devastation and recovery aid. The core has some discretion to help forego assistance even though the community worked on a project to work with congress to get it authorized. I look forward to the discussion today, mayor corbett, thank you, i know you will be detailing for this committee cedar rapids very very important story. Im also eager to continue my conversation with you, general semonite, thank you for being here today to see if we can move forward on this. Thank you very much, mr. Chair. Thank you. Senator ernst. Senator harris, may i invite you to introduce your guest. Thank you for scheduling this important hearing as recent events in my home state highlight the importance to assist our state and local partners to upgrade our nations aging infrastructure especially when it comes to what could threaten the safety of all americans. It is my distinct pleasure to introduce the secretary of the Natural Resources agency, secretary laird, who has over 40 years of experience working in Public Service ranging from a budget analyst from then u. S. Representative drum waldy, elected official as city councilman and mayor and state legislator where he chaired the california Budget AssemblyBudget Committee and i had a pleasure of working with him both when i was District Attorney in San Francisco and attorney general. In his current role as secretary of Natural Resources he manages californias ecological and cultural resources, water r reserving and state replies and environmental policies. Within his agency he overseas 30 subdepartments including the California Department of Water Resources, the lead Agency Working around the clock to repair the orieville dam and prevent catastrophic flooding. Last week, we had a chance to tour the dam together and he had an extraordinary understanding of the technical needs of the dam and levee infrastructure. I want to comment as he and i noticed it was an extraordinary example of the federal and local agencies coming together to meet a need that was really a crisis in terms of its proportion. We saw folks that ranged from members of the National Guard, the United States navy, fema and California Emergency Services together with the local sheriff, butt county sheriff, who came together to meet the challenge and the need and they did it in a seamless way. It goes without saying secretary laird has Extensive Knowledge of the needs of our nation and needs to consider when it comes to sufficiently entertaining our infrastructure and flood management systems. This combined with his budgetary experience at all levels of government should shed light how congress should handle funding streams for our aging infrastructure. I know in california alone there are approximately 1,400 dams and nearly half of those are designated as quote high hazard potential dams by state officials. Realizing the devastation that could be caused by an aging dam infrastructure, california has invested president ial 11 billion in Flood Control management in the past decade to protect nearly 7 Million People and 5 580 billion worth of asses which including buildings, farmland and crops at risk. The need for improvements arent solely in california. For example in states like wyoming we have invested more than 1 1. 2 billion of their states funding for Water Infrastructure improvements, water storage and supply proj t projects, recycled and Wastewater Management and treatment and drought and emergency relief water programs since 1975. In addition, according to the association of state dam officials it is estimated nonfederally owned dams throughout our nation represent 96 of all dams in the just and would need more than 60 billion dollars to sufficiently repair, a third of the costs urgently needed to repair the high hazard dams identified by the association. This demonstrates that the need is great across our nation. That is why i greatly appreciate the chairmans willingness to prioritize this conversation and i look forward to working with my colleagues on this committee to continue federal support necessary and critical to maintain our infrastructure nationwide. I look forward to hearing from you, mr. Secretary, welcome and i appreciate all the members of the committee and other winters for being here to other witnesses for being here to d disthis crucial topic. Thank you, senator harris. That was a very nice introduction. Thank you. Let me explain where we are today. A vote is going on. I already voted the first time. Several others will be voting and coming back. I will say theres staff from each member here today. We will start with Opening Statements and well start with you, general semonite. If senator brasso is not back, we will skip you and go to the third because he wants to be here during your opening stateme statement. General, youre on. Chairman brasso and the members of the committee and the corps of engineers and 54th chief of engineers, thank you for the opportunity to be here today to discuss the role of the United States army corps of engineers in levee safety. One of the core requirements is to reduce risk to Public Safety. Our efforts are part of a larger array of management processes to insure our nation can enjoy a range of benefits. The corps uses a risk informed approach to insure these objectives are met in a transparent and disciplined manner. Water play assen tral role in the health of our economy and diversity of ecosystems. Unfortunately many of those in our nation experience what we have when we have too little water, too much water or water not fit to consume or sustained natural habitat. In many ways the decisions we made as a nation managing and protecting our Water Resources have influenced how the nation developed and where its people now live. The nations water resource infrastructure includes dams and levees built by the federal government, states and authorities of the private sector. Sustaining the benefit of these structures requires only the appropriate investment of resources and proper management of the risks that come with those benefits. Although often planned and constructed as individual project, many of our nations dams and levees now operate as integrative components of a larger Resource Manage