Grassley: Eastern Iowa Flooding Draws Attention to Bureaucracy of Army Corps of Engineers in Evaluating Projects

Over the weekend, Sen. Grassley received numerous updates and talked with Iowans in several cities in Eastern Iowa preparing for floods. Photos are available here https://www.flickr.com/photos/chuckgrassley/albums/72157673234062571.

Senator Chuck Grassley Flood Speech

Floods of 2016

Delivered Monday, Sept. 26, 2016

Iowa is once again faced with severe flooding throughout Eastern Iowa. It was only eight years ago that I was on the floor talking about the record devastation caused by severe storms and floods. Many of the same places are currently experiencing similar flooding, as rivers are cresting at record or near record levels.

On Saturday, I toured several cities with the Governor, Lt. Governor, and the Iowa Congressional delegation. We saw debris and damage left by receding flood waters, many homes underwater, and great flood fight preparations.

Many businesses and individual volunteers have been working tirelessly to help prevent damage to both public and private property and help clean up. That is the Iowa way. I thank those who have helped and will provide assistance in the future.

Since the floods of 2008, many lessons have been learned. Plans and training to protect Iowa communities are in place. I am pleased to report that the mitigation through federal, state, and local resources that has taken place throughout Iowa since the floods of 2008 has been beneficial. This has already proven effective and will lessen the impacts of this year's floods. It is estimated that more than $50 million of reduced impacts will be experienced because of previous mitigation efforts. However, so much remains to be done.

Iowa's second largest city, Cedar Rapids, experienced massive devastation with more than 1,300 city blocks covered in water and over $32 billion worth of damages in the floods of 2008. Today, they are fighting to prepare for a high crest on the Cedar River, second only to 2008. Cedar Rapids is doing everything it can to protect its citizens by using Hesco barriers, earthen levees, and berms. However, a permanent solution through permanent flood control structures is still needed.

Even prior to the 2008 floods, protection of the Cedar River in Cedar Rapids was identified as needing evaluation. In 2006, Congress authorized a flood risk management feasibility study with the feasibility cost share agreement being signed on May 30, 2008. Since then, the feasibility study was completed and alternatives chosen, although this federal project only protects a portion of the city. I worked to get the construction of the project authorized in the Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2014. The first WRDA bill since 2007. However, funding has been difficult to obtain since the benefit-cost ratio is just over one. I am pleased that the Senate instructed the Army Corps of Engineers to expedite this and three other flood damage reduction and flood risk management projects in the recently passed Water Resources Development Act.

Also in this year's Senate passed WRDA bill was an amendment I was glad to cosponsor with Senator Ernst requiring the Government Accountability Office to study the Army Corps of Engineers' methodology and performance metrics used to calculate benefit-cost ratios when evaluating construction projects. I have heard from Cedar Rapids, Des Moines, and several other places in Iowa regarding their concerns about how the Corps calculates the benefit of structures and that mitigation and future savings is not a strong factor in the determination of flood risk management.

I recognize that this is a complex issue and that the Corps rarely gets enough funding to operate and maintain what it owns, let alone start numerous construction projects. I also recognize the need to have a rationale on how to prioritize projects when there are scarce resources, and I have been supportive of these efforts.

However, a one-size-fits-all approach doesn't work when dealing with flood protection. It is a necessity to more accurately quantify future benefits and the protection of citizens when making benefit-cost ratios. We also need to find a way to expedite these flood projects so it doesn't take 20-40 years to study, design, build, and complete.

Iowans don't understand when they are faced with severe repeated flooding why the federal government does not prioritize flood risk management and mitigation instead of spending emergency money to fight and recover to put them back in the same position as before. This money would be better spent actually mitigating the problem and protecting citizens and property.

I have heard of similar concerns all across the United States, not just in Iowa. My staff ran across articles from Louisiana, Texas, New Jersey, and Idaho all stating similar concerns and I am sure we could find many more.

I call on the Army Corps of Engineers to carefully evaluate how they can improve their areas of flood control policy. Reforms have taken place to expedite the study, planning, and report process but reforms are needed to how they make these determinations.

I also call on the Office of Management and Budget and my colleagues on the Appropriations Committee to change the way the Army Corps of Engineers receives its funding. Every part of the Corps budget could be considered an earmark under Senate rules. Therefore, it is very hard to advocate for the needs of the Corps districts and projects within Congress without violating the earmark ban. As a result, the primary decision about what is included in the Corps budget rests with the President's budget each year. I am not advocating to bring back earmarks for specific projects, but to fund the Corps in a programmatic way or by district to allow Congress to exercise its oversight over funding decisions. All branches need to be held accountable for spending decisions including the federal bureaucracy. Congress should have the power of the purse for funding decisions of such importance to the people we represent, not some bureaucrat.

A retired Major General, Tom Sands, who was the Commanding General of the Army Corps of Engineers Lower Mississippi Valley Division and President of the Mississippi River Commission wrote in a blog for The Hill newspaper on September 7, 2016, "No doubt the rationale for the current uniform approach [at the Corps] is to foster "fairness." But federal water policy would be better focused on how to quantify and achieve superior outcomes. This new approach needs to focus more on common sense than on bureaucratic decisions."

As I have based my work as a public servant on Iowa common sense, not bureaucratic nonsense, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Read this original document at: http://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-eastern-iowa-flooding-draws-attention-bureaucracy-army-corps-engineers