Water Resources Development Act makes big waves in Congress
by Katie Maupin, posted Dec. 5, 2007
On Nov. 8, Congress overrode President George W. Bush’s veto of the Water Resources Development Act, marking the first step of a two-part legislative process.
The bill has received support from many agriculture organizations, including Farm Bureau and the National Corn Growers Association, because of its improvements to the Mississippi River locks. This will make it easier for larger barges to navigate the Mississippi River, lowering shipping prices for commodities such as corn.
“We decrease the transportation costs by reducing congestion and decreasing the amount of time it takes to get from the Midwest to the Gulf,” said Seth Meyer, MU assistant research professor agricultural economics.
According to David Galat, MU cooperative associate professor of fisheries and wildlife sciences,WRDA offers more than just economic benefits. It will also help the environment. Two of the programs authorized in the bill that will have major effects on Missouri residents include the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee, or MR RIC, and the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program, or NESP.
MR RIC is a collaborative effort of the Missouri River Basin stakeholders, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to help restore the Missouri River, including re-establishing the federally endangered pallid sturgeon. MR RIC will be the first congressionally authorized program that enables all basin interests to formally advise the Corps of Engineers, according to Galat. It also provides a forum for people involved in navigation and agriculture to be more involved with environmental issues, like the one of the pallid sturgeon.
NESP is a two-part program that not only focuses on upper Mississippi River restoration but it also will greatly improve the efficiency on the Mississippi River, according to Galat. Presently, many of the locks in use were constructed in the ‘30s and are less than half the size of modern locks, according to Meyer.
WRDA affects more than just Missouri and includes numerous waterway improvements, including flood control, inland navigation, shoreline protection and environmental restoration throughout the U.S. However, it does not show how Congress plans to pay for these improvements.
According to Patrick Westhoff, MU research associate professor of agricultural economics, WRDA is strictly an authorization bill, meaning that it has approved rules and guidelines under which to run these programs but actual funding will have to come from separate legislation.
“Authorizing these things is very different than funding,” Galat said.
Funding is a big issue considering that the bill calls for $23 billion worth of improvements in the nation’s waterways. In Missouri alone, $3.6 billion will be spent to improve the Missouri and Mississippi rivers.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that an appropriation bill, or bill that authorizes funding, will be passed in 2008 followed by similar appropriation bills until 2012.
