***Click here for audio. Click here for video.***

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee held a hearing to conduct U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) oversight. The hearing featured testimony from Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle and Chief of Engineers and Commanding General of USACE Lieutenant General William H. Graham, Jr.

U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Chairman of the EPW’s Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over the USACE, began by thanking Telle for finally establishing the Western Water Cooperative Committee (WWCC). The WWCC was championed by Cramer and authorized in the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2022, but was not set up until earlier this year.

“Oh, by the way, it was due in 90 days after it was implemented,” Cramer noted. “You stepped in and it got done, and I appreciate that. […] It means a lot to me that you stepped up and did that.”

The WWCC provides North Dakota and other western states a platform to bring localized problems directly to the USACE to engage in dialogue and help ensure the agency’s policies align with state water rights and laws.

Cramer then questioned Telle on streamlining bureaucracy within the USACE and applauded the Trump administration’s embrace of doing less with less.

“It’s a breath of fresh air and I’m fully supportive of it. In the past, especially with the Corps, something we’ve heard a lot is ‘we just don’t have enough staff to do things.’ […] I think the smarter approach is streamlining things, eliminating unneeded regulations, and ultimately reducing the workload. Specific to the Corps, do you believe pre-COVID staffing levels are adequate to deliver its mission?”

Telle explained, “I agree with you that a larger bureaucracy doesn't necessarily mean better results for the American taxpayer. And as you intelligently point out, the staffing levels within the United States Army Corps of Engineers mirror the staffing levels of the United States Army Corps of Engineers prior to the pandemic. I believe that with modern technology, with better forms of cooperation with our non-federal sponsors - I think about the project in Fargo and your state - I think we can deliver more to the American taxpayers with a staff that looks a whole lot like the staff prior to the pandemic.”

Cramer later asked General Graham about the long overdue noxious weed report, which was due in 2022. The Terrestrial Noxious Weed Control Demonstration Program was authorized in WRDA 2020 and required the USACE to issue a report to Congress on improved strategies for dealing with noxious weeds. Additionally, Cramer secured language in WRDA 2024 directing the USACE to prioritize completing the report. Cramer explained, “Over five years ago, I passed a law that requires a report on how to deal with noxious weeds. I hear it over and over from landowners that border Corps land. It's over three years late. In other words, they're never going to do it. I'm sure it's in some well-intentioned bureaucrat’s pile, but the law didn't say, ‘get around to it when you can.’ When in doubt, obey the law.”

“I believe that report, as you kind of alluded to, is still under administration review,” responded General Graham. “But we absolutely want to be great neighbors with our partners up there and leverage every bit of local knowledge that we have with the farmers out there, with the Tribes out there, so that we can steward this land for the American people to the best of our ability.”