Waterways Council, Inc. (WCI) President/CEO Michael J. Toohey issued the following statement regarding today’s mark-up of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee:
“We thank Chairwoman Barbara Boxer and Ranking Member David Vitter for their collaborative efforts to develop a long-overdue WRDA bill that addresses the needs of the inland waterways system. We applaud the WRDA bill’s elements that address navigation project delivery reforms, streamlining of Inland Waterways Users Board appointments, and investments made in inland waterways projects across all geographic areas.
We look forward to working with Senators Boxer and Vitter, together with others in the Senate, to incorporate additional elements of the Capital Development Plan in the WRDA bill as it moves through the Senate because a modern inland navigation infrastructure on our nation’s waterways is critical to our U.S. competitiveness in the world market. The time is now to make needed investments in our locks and dams because time is running out.”
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