Fearing another ’93 disaster, Mississippi River mayors calling for more flexibility on federal flood mitigation spending

March 07-- Mar. 7--WASHINGTON -- Mayors of cities along the Mississippi River, concerned about potential record flooding again this spring, are here this week to ask Congress for more flexibility in spending $7.9 billion to fight natural disasters and add more loan programs to finance mitigation projects.

They met Tuesday with Army Corps of Engineers officials, Wednesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Thursday with members of President Donald Trump's National Security Council and Council of Economic Advisers.

They're urging Congress, which has been unable to fulfill a Trump campaign promise to fund a major, national infrastructure bill, to give them flexibility in how they use the $7.9 billion already appropriated. The money often comes with strings that restrict local innovation, mayors said, and they're hoping that reassurances from the White House and members of their delegations in Congress will lead to movement on the issue soon.

"Realistically, we heard from (Trump's) representatives that infrastructure still remains important," said Davenport, Iowa, Mayor Frank Klipsch, co-chair of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiatives. "Now, how that is going to shake out -- that is what we are working to find out."

About 15 mayors from cities along the Mississippi (St. Louis's Mayor Lyda Krewson remained in Missouri for this week's elections) held a news conference Thursday, on a day in which the House was embroiled in a controversy over a resolution condemning anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry sparked by comments many considered anti-Semitic by Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.

The mayors' visit also coincides with several congressional committees in the Democratic-controlled House now engrossed in investigations of Trump and his pre-presidential business dealings.

But the mayors largely tried to mitigate concerns about whether Congress was paying enough attention to what the National Weather Service has said could be disastrous flooding along the Mississippi this year. A Minnesota mayor in the group said his city has about two feet of snow on the ground and that more is expected Saturday.

"We have talked to ... both congressmen and senators on both sides of the aisle and all of them have agreed these are important priorities," said Klipsch, whose city has developed a prototype riverfront park designed to absorb floodwaters.

"So in the midst of (the attention to the investigations and debates over racism) there is more discussion -- and we have been very encouraged -- more discussion about a bipartisan approach," he said.

Noting that there has already been near-record flooding along the river in southern Illinois and in Louisiana, St. Gabriel, La., Mayor Lionel Johnson, the group's other co-chair, summarized the worries of all.

"The soil is saturated and there is very little capacity to absorb anything along the Mississippi River," he said, pointing out that his city is still recovering from a massive 2016 flood that caused $10 billion in damage in and around Baton Rouge. "And we even have spring rains to come."

The 1993 floods caused at least $15 billion in damage and claimed 50 lives in St. Louis. Its duration on the Mississippi, from May to September, prolonged the misery.

The mayors said one of the reasons they are here is to urge Congress to maintain the $7.9 billion flood mitigation spending. The group also is pushing for the establishment of a revolving loan fund that would allow localities to help get financing elsewhere.

In addition, the mayors this week came to an agreement with a company called Quantified Ventures, aimed at creating "environmental impact bonds" to help cities finance local disaster mitigation. The company bills itself as an "investing advisory firm that simplifies the process of financing innovative and evidence-based environmental, health and educational outcomes."

The company's founder and chief executive, Eric Letsinger, told the mayors that "you are going to need innovative solutions, you are going to need innovative ways to pay for those solutions, and you are going to need access to new sources of capital."

The St. Louis-based Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative says that the river directly supports 1.5 million jobs, provides water to 20 million people in 50 cities, generates $496 billion in annual revenue and ships 60 percent of the corn and soybeans and 40 percent of the nation's total farm output to markets in this country and abroad.

The group was meeting with National Security Council representatives at a time when Trump has cast doubt on his own government's findings that climate change is a national security threat. It also comes as the Senate is engaging in a highly polarized debate over the "Green New Deal," an initiative spearheaded by first-term Rep. Alexandria Ocaso-Cortez, D-N.Y., that Republicans have attacked on the Senate floor this week as unrealistic, unworkable and unaffordable.

But Democrats have pushed back, arguing that climate change science is undeniable and that Republicans, by supporting the fossil fuel industry, risk the health and economic security of future generations by not tackling the problem more robustly.

No matter what it's called, or who or what is to blame for it, Klipsch said that there is a general consensus among mayors that weather-related disasters are on the rise and that ever-increasing levels of innovation are needed to deal with it. But he and other mayors said they are also getting better at preparation, although they all had a slow-thaw mantra in mind for this spring.

That thought was echoed by Kimmswick Mayor Phil Stang, who said he was "cautiously optimistic, and prepared."

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