Number: 2008-08
WHEREAS, since 1974 Congress has principally chosen Water Resources Development Acts (“WRDAs”) to consider and enact legislation to guide and authorize policies, programs and projects of the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers; and
WHEREAS, while these bills are purportedly intended to be passed biennially, they have often become mired in disputes and controversy and have been delayed sometimes for multiple congressional sessions; and
WHEREAS, in recent years Congress has increasingly begun to view WRDAs as ‘omnibus’ public works bills, which have resulted in increasingly large backlogs of unfunded and un-constructed projects and which include large numbers of projects and project modification authorizations, often for which no previous studies or justifications exist, and which are subject to little or no scrutiny to determine whether they are priorities or in the national interest; and
WHEREAS, increasingly the Army Corps of Engineers is being called upon to assist in ecosystem restoration activities such as the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan in Florida, Great Lakes restoration, the Louisiana Coastal Area Plan, the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois River Ecosystem Restoration, restoration projects in numerous bays and estuaries, and others, and the success of such programs require sustained multi-year planning efforts and authorizations of related elements where costs and bringing about the restoration of ecosystem health depends especially on timely implementation of plans that are based upon adaptive management principles; and
WHEREAS, the delays associated with WRDAs in recent years have adversely affected the pace, success and ultimate costs of critically important ecosystem restorations, where federal obligations are failing to be met, sometimes with years of delays;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation, in its annual meeting assembled May 14 -17, 2008, in Keystone, CO, hereby calls upon Congress and the Administration to develop new legislative or other mechanisms to separate national priority ecosystem restoration projects from the current omnibus WRDA approach; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation urges Congress and the Administration to exercise greater legislative oversight and attention to expedite critical ecosystem restoration projects so as to maintain regular and reliable authorizations and funding and to provide greater support for the ultimate and timely success of these important national interest programs.