The meeting will come to order. Since we to have members here that want to be recognized and introduced to everyone, and i happen to be one of those, i think we might go ahead before Opening Statements and do that before we lose someone. If we already know a Lieutenant General todd semonite, youre a regular here pim recognize at this time senator carden to recognize pete ran, introduce pete mr. Chairman, thank you very much. A pleasure to have the secretary here before our committee. Thats secretary of the of transportation in maryland but as i was telling the chairman, this is the third state hes been secretary of transportation. Hes directed the Missouri Department of transportation and the new mexico state highway department. He just cant hold onto a job. Were proud of the work he does in maryland. We have a pretty challenging organization in maryland where the secretary of transportations responsible for all modes of transportation and coordinating all modes of transportation. Mr. Rans done an outstanding job in directing that department. Its a very large budget. But he also serves as president of the American Association of state highway and transportation officials from 2007 to 2008, other positions in the National Leadership and were proud to have him before our committee. Thank you. Very good. Recognize senator Kennedy Merkley for your introduction. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing to invest in Water Infrastructure. Im pleased to introduce rick oshea from my home state of oregon to testify. Not only a port commissioner hes been a fisherman and small businessman for almost 50 years and is involved in many aspects of the fishing community. He owns and operates a fishing vessel peso 2 and owns a sacred sea tuna brand. He is chairman of the albacore position, president of aquatic rer sources, inc. , for Live Seafood Holding and shipping. He is chairman of fish cred, a statewide fishermans organization. Very few people know as intimately as rick the importance of maintenance for our small ports, our navigation channels, and our jetties. In fact, rick should probably be home preparing his boat for annual maintenance, but hes here on behalf of the fishermen whose lives and livelihoods depend on this funding to make sure they can get to safe harbor. He has crossed about every bar between San Francisco and canada, and hes here to advocate for the army corps budge tote make sure the small ports stay the economic driver of our coastal communities. Thanks for being here, commissioner. Appreciate it. Thank you. Welcome, commissioner oshea. Senator shelby, would you like to introduce your member . Thank you. Chairman inhofe, Ranking Member. Its great opportunity for me today to introduce jimmy line, who is the director and the ceo of the Alabama StatePort Authority. Im glad he could join us today. Ive known jimmy and his family for many years and the work theyve done at the port of mobile, not only vital to our state but to the gulf coast region. He is the director of the Alabama StatePort Authority. The port of mobile is currently the tenth largest seaport in import and export of Domestic Trade by the total volume. The ports largest commodities are coal, crude oil, steel, and petre petrole petroleum. Between 50 to 60 million tons of cargo moves through the port annually and that number continues to grow. Jimmy has continuously worked to meet the growing demands of a postpanama canal market. In 2014, the Port Authority submitted a request to the corps of engineers to consider increasing the depth and width of the mobile Harbor Channel to its authorized dimensions. The corps subsequent ly began a grr which examines potential ost costs and benefits associated with the deepening and the widening of the port. This study is expected to conclude in 2019. Mr. Chairman, the port of mobile provides access to nearly 158,000 miles of inland waterways serving the great lakes, ohio valley, upper mississippi, and Tennessee Valley ports. Simply put, the port serves as an economic driver for much more than just mobile. The new administration has made Economic Growth a top priority to ensure that our stris and businesses, big and small, can continue to compete in the increasingly complicated global marketplace. To facilitate this growth its important that Congress Make infrastructure legislation a priority. The corps plays as we all know an important part and role in modernizing our nations waterways. Core projects provide more than 100 billion annually in net economic benefits. I believe this demonstrates the job tree Carmelo Anthony yags and Economic Growth associated with such investments. Im thankful for the committee today and of your leadership, working to understand the challenges that were facing. Ill look forward to hearing the testimony of all the witnesses. Thank you. I wont say weve saved the best for last, that would sound selfserving, but we have mr. Grant humphries, the founder of carlton landing in oklahoma. Happy to have grant here. Ive known his daddy, curt, for longer than hes been alive, so its a pleasure having you here in the capacity of what youre successfully doing in oklahoma. He is a real estate developer, investor, home builder. About ten years ago grant began the process of founding and developing carlton landing at lake in oklahoma. Some of you may not be aware of the fact that oklahoma has more miles of fresh water shoreline than any of the 50 states. Did you know that, shelby . [ inaudible ] well, there we go. In carlton landing grant has embarked on an ambitious project which is already showing Great Successes, which he will be sharing with us. In addition, he is also the founder and principal of Traditional Home craft homes, a Home BuildingCompany Providing custom and special production of homes and developing a project on the lake, hes become involved with a community of Late Developers in the region and can speak to his and others experiences with getting a project started. I welcome you here today, grant. Todays first transportation infrastructure subcommittee hearing is on a subject that is very important to our whole nation including my state of oklahoma. Our nations Water Resources provide you are a economy with a platform for the movement of goods to facilitate trade with the world and bring jobs and many other benefits to the communities that surround them. The u. S. Corps of engineers project generate over 109 billion annually in economic benefits and generate over 34 billion in revenue to the United States treasury. Unfortunately, like most of our infrastructure, our Water Resources are aging and in great need of repair and upgrades. Recognizing this need, the last two congresses have worked to authorize new projects and create reforms to provide more funding, federal funding, and also private investing, something we could dont not too long ago. Todays hearing will explain the benefits of our Water Resources provide to local and National Economies and examine the continued needs that must be met so that the u. S. Can remain globery competitive and provide jobs and other local benefits at home. In oklahoma, we know these benefits first handle. With ports along the Mcclellan Kerr arkansas 1 2 nation system connecting oklahoma with the mississippi rif and with the rest of the world, and over 220 army corps of engineers in our state, our citizens know the impact of our many water resource projects through cheaper goods, cheaper electricity, jobs, flood protection, and many recreational opportunities. The Mcclellan KerrArkansas RiverNavigation System is 445 miles long and spans arkansas and the eastern part of oklahoma. Between the point of muskogee and the tulsa port, oklahoma ports are are home to over 70 companies and industries shipping 5. Million tons of car fwoe with values of 2 56 dollars employing more than 6,500 oklahomans and creating an Overall Economic impact to our state each year. The ability to move all kinds of goods without relying solely on one form of transportation keeps shipping costs low, benefiting companies that ship their wares regionally and locally and benefiting consumers who can stretch their dollars further. In addition to improving products and manufactured goods, other projects help our communities by providing for flood Risk Management, water storage, hydro power, and recreation. Every thoushzed use of a corps project allows the surrounding communities to realize a greater potential for Economic Development and improouchs the quality of life for those who fend on the infrastructure either directly or indirectly. The challenge before us today is to understand the full need for repairing and maintaining our current infrastructure and the need for new projects to ensure that the United States remains globally competitive and our communities continue to reap the benefits of the army corps infrastructure. Infrastructure. With the topic of infrastructure in the news during the election cycle and within the new administration, the time is now to work towards solutions to meeting these needs. So i thank our witnesses for being here today. I want to make one comment about the attendance here. This is taking place at the same time that were having the Senate Armed Services committee which i have been the Ranking Member, so it is difficult to be two places at once. They will be going back and forth. Senator cardin. First, mr. Chairman, let me say what a pleasure it is to be sitting next to you in this committee as we convene our first public hearing of the subcommittee. Senator inhofe and i came to the United States congress on the same day in the house of representatives, and weve been friends ever since. It is a real pleasure to serve with him on this subcommittee because ive going to let you in on a secret, the senator inhofe is one of the most progressive people i know in this country on infrastructure development. I always told him i would be glad to come to a state to campaign for him, but he told me he would prefer me to stay in maryland. But the two of us share a passion for the importance of Water Infrastructure, roads, bridges, Transportation Systems for the entire modernization of our infrastructure because both of us understand it means jobs. It means u. S. Competitiveness. It means america having the ability to compete globally. Thats what it means. We recognize the importance of the governmental part, the private sector part and putting this all together. I particularly want to acknowledge as my pleasure to serve as Ranking Member with the senator on the subcommittee. I think it is important that our first hearing deals with the role of Public Private sector in Water Resources because we need both. You heard senator inhofe brag a little bit about his state on water projects. Well, i could spend the next two hours talking about the state of maryland, and im not going to do that but i am going to compliment again secretary ron for the leadership we have in our maryland port. I had a briefing on the maryland port last week. We are doing extremely well. January 2017 the port of baltimore hit another record month. We are the closest to the midwest than any other east coast port, which gives maryland an advantage. We rank ninth overall in value of cargo and baltimore is wellknown for the cars that come in and out of that port, as the largest in the region, and we are significantly increasing our capacity on container. We handle a great deal. One of the facts i just have to put this in the record and brag, the journal of commerce rank port of baltimore as number one in the nation with container berth for three years in a row. Were pretty efficient and were proud of our efficiency in the port of baltimore. Under our state leadership we moved quickly, recognizing that the expansion of the panama canal would allow larger vessels to be able to be handled. We had to add the facilities in baltimore to be able to deal with that, and baltimore is only one of four eastern ports with a 50foot channel and a 50foot container berth allowing to accommodate some of the largest container ships in the world. On july 19th, 2016, the Cargo Carrier from taiwan was the first supersize container ship to reach baltimore through the panama canal. So were ready. Were ready. It is critically important to our economy. I got some members and this is going to be typical of just about every port in our country, but the business from the port generates 13,000 plus jobs, direct jobs with more than 127 jobs in maryland linked to the port activity. This is very important to our economy. 3 billion in wages and salaries, contributing more than 310 million into state and local tax revenues. So this is important business for a senator from maryland, it is important business for a senator from every one of our states, and thats why were particularly pleased to have this hearing. I do want to just point out that we cant do this just by one of the stakeholders alone. We appreciate the role the federal government plays. It is very important, the direct help of the Water Resources, and were going to talk today generally talk a little bit about the next important leg in maryland, which is midday on the dredging materials, and reclaiming of land. My predecessor senator was directly responsible for Popular Island which was a Great Success and model for the nation on allowing reclaiming of land as well as location for dredge material. We now need to move on to midday, which has already been studied and i think were on track but we will talk about it. We also need the roads, the bridges, we also need the rail and we also need the private sector. This hearing is an attempt to try to understand we need all of the above, and i hope that as a result of this hearing and further hearings that we have that we will be able to get the investments by the public and private sector so america can indeed be competitive in our port and Water Activities so we can get the job growth that the people of this country need. Thank you, senator cardin. Let me just say that weve worked so well together for so many years and that we work on things that actually become productive. I can remember confession is good for the soul, and if you will pardon me for bragging a little bit. When we had been having our meeting, it was the chairman on the republican side, it happened every tuesday. We had every tuesday at 12 15. When it comes my turn i always say now from the committee that actually does things, because we did. I would say to my friend, senator cardin, that we had the fast pass, we did the water act, we had the chemical act. Those are three of the four biggest projects or bills that were actually passed. So were used to accomplishing things. Now, what were going to do because we have five witnesses who have many such at senator capto and i have other committees at the same time, were going to try to get you to adhere to if you would the fiveminute maximum on your comments, and of course your entire statement will be made a part of the record. Well start with general semonite. Chairman, Ranking Member, im Lieutenant General todd semonite, and the 54th chief of engineers. Im pleased to be here to discuss the role of United States army corps of engineers and the water resource investments across the nation. The corps played a significant role in development of the nation Water Resources, and currently manages an Extensive National water resource infrastructure portfolio including maintenance of 13,000 miles of coastal navigation channels, 12,000 miles of inland waterways, 715 dams, 241 locks, 14,000 miles of levies and hydro power plants at 75 locations. This projects help provide Risk Reduction from flooding in our River Valleys and along our coast. Facilitate the movement of approximately 2 billion tons of waterborn commerce and provide up to 24 of the nations hydro power. There are about 250 million recreational visits a year to corps lands and reservoirs, making the corps one of the top federal recreation providers. Corps water resource investments bring significant value to the nation. For example, the United StatesMaritime Transportation industry supports approximately 2 trillion in commerce with over 2 billion tons of commerce moving through harbors, channels and waterways constructed and maintained by the corps.