Congresswoman Barbara Lee Hails Passage of Water Bill
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 20, 2014
Contact: Katherine Jolly (510) 763-0370
Washington, D.C. –Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement following the House’s passage of H.R. 3080, the Conference Report for the Water Resource Reform and Development Act (WRRDA). This common-sense, bipartisan legislation invests in modern water infrastructure projects and will allow entities like the Port of Oakland to access additional funding for improvements:
“For many years, the Port of Oakland and other West Coast Ports have contributed more to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund than they’ve received, while postponing and delaying important projects. I am pleased that we were able to address this inequity by requiring full expenditure of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund by 2025. The bill also affords ports more flexibility to put Harbor Maintenance funds towards maintenance dredging and environmental projects.
“The infrastructure at our ports, harbors, rivers, and levees is critical to the health of our economy and these investments will help keep our country competitive while creating jobs. I am also pleased that the final version of this bill retained important protections of the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). We must ensure that our infrastructure is environmentally sustainable and I will continue to advocate for the expansion of environmental protections in future infrastructure bills.”
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Follow Barbara Lee on Facebook and Twitter at @RepBarbaraLee. To learn more, visit lee.house.gov.
Congresswoman Lee is a member of the Appropriations and Budget Committees, the Steering and Policy Committee, is a Senior Democratic Whip, as well as the Whip of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), where she serves as the Co-Chair of the CPC Peace and Security Task Force.