Chad Smith, NAFB News Service

U.S. Representative Sam Graves, a Missouri Republican, introduced the Water Resources Development Act of 2020 this week. Graves says the legislation plays a key role in any water infrastructure project, including flood control, navigation, ports, locks and dams. The legislation will facilitate commerce through ports and inland waterways, improve flood control infrastructure, and “help develop flood control plans that actually work.” The legislation will give the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers new construction authority for communities facing repetitive flooding events. One of the more significant roadblocks to ensuring a project can be done quickly is getting construction authority expeditiously, and this bill will allow those communities to be protected more quickly, according to Graves. The bill also makes an important change in the cost-share for Inland Waterways Trust Fund projects on the Upper Mississippi and Illinois River systems. This change will accelerate the timeframe for funding and completion of projects to modernize outdated locks and dams on these rivers.