Chairman Carper's Opening Statement: Hearing on Army Corps' Project Partnership Agreements and WRDA 2024 Development

Hearing

"Today, we are here to discuss the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Project Partnership Agreements. What exactly are Project Partnership Agreements, you might ask? PPAs are documents -- signed by the Corps and non-federal project sponsors -- that guide work authorized by the biennial Water Resources Development Act, affectionately known as WRDA. These projects are critical to coastal and inland flood risk mitigation, navigation, and ecosystem restoration, among other purposes.

As many of us know, despite the Army Corps' exceptionally important and challenging mission, the agency's funding needs far outweigh its available resources.

Why does that matter? Well, the projects carried out by the Corps provide the backbone of America's water infrastructure. That work includes protecting communities from damaging floods, enabling billions in commerce through our ports and waterways, and restoring hundreds of thousands of acres of aquatic ecosystems. Corps projects also help prepare communities for extreme weather events, which we know are getting worse due to climate change.

And, the importance of that work cannot be overstated. For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that the threat of sea level rise is going to accelerate in the next 30 years without intervention. That's certainly going to impact many of the roughly 40 percent of Americans who live in coastal counties.

In addition, the seven most destructive storms since 2000 have cost American taxpayers over $1.3 trillion. These storms destroy homes and cars, grind travel and tourism to a halt, and oftentimes uproot people's lives. Corps projects are there to defend against these disasters.

Corps projects also keep our economy moving. The Corps is directly responsible for operating America's water highway, a 12,000-mile-long system of inland waterways that are vital to domestic and international commerce. Each year, that expansive system moves more than 500 million tons of commodities, including 60 percent of our nation's agricultural exports. The Corps' work to help operate and maintain that system results in an economic benefit of nearly $14 billion each year.

Given the range of benefits of Corps projects, it should come as no surprise that WRDAs continue to enjoy broad bipartisan support. Our most recent WRDA passed the Senate in 2022 by a vote of 93-1, and it eventually carried the National Defense Authorization Act to President Biden's Desk.

Ranking Member Capito and I intend to continue this bipartisan track record with WRDA 2024. As many of you know, the bill is currently under development thanks in no small part to robust input from many of our colleagues. Senator Capito and I intend to move it through our committee before next summer.

That brings us to today's discussion on Corps Project Partnership Agreements. Since kicking off the WRDA 2024 process in July, Senator Capito and I have heard concerns that these agreements could be stalling critical construction projects. We need to understand what is causing these delays.

As I stated earlier, a Project Partnership Agreement is a guiding document between the Corps and a local project sponsor that outlines both the federal and non-federal stakeholder's roles and responsibilities for the construction and long-term care of the project.

Since 2012, the Corps has dramatically changed the project agreement process, developing templates and streamlining requirements to provide consistency and fair treatment to stakeholders. Having said that, not every Corps project is the same. Stakeholders have raised concerns that these agreements need to be made more flexible and that many of the requirements are cumbersome.

Yet, given the importance of Corps projects for the safety and well-being of communities, non-federal sponsors feel pressured to sign unfavorable Project Partnership Agreements.

Ultimately, it is our job in Congress to ensure that federal investments are protected. At the same time, we must also ensure that non-federal stakeholders can support the projects and are not made to assume an unreasonable amount of risk.

Having said that, we look forward to hearing from our witnesses today about their experiences working with the Corps to develop and implement Project Partnership Agreements. We also look forward to hearing their perspectives on what is going well and where there are opportunities for improvement."

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