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WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Thomas R. Carper Water Resources Development Act of 2024 (WRDA) passed the Senate on Wednesday by a vote of 97 to 1. Last week, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill on a broad bipartisan basis, with a vote of 399 to 18. WRDA is a biennial bill which authorizes flood control, navigation, and ecosystem restoration projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). This year, WRDA is paired with a collection of bills, which moved through regular order and received markups in both the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. In addition to WRDA, this package includes legislation to reauthorize the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) and repurpose unused transportation financing for state departments of transportation formula programs.
U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ranking Member of the EPW Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, celebrated the passage of WRDA in a statement:
“This particular WRDA bill delivers some real results for North Dakota and for the nation, quite honestly,” said Cramer. “It passed both the Senate and House overwhelmingly, and it’s continuing our decade-long streak of passing WRDA on time and through regular order, something that’s not done very many times anymore in the Congress. It’s a package that includes lots of important priorities that I personally championed, things like improving local recreational sites, strengthening the National Dam Safety Program, reauthorizing and reforming the Economic Development Administration for the first time, if you can imagine, in twenty years, and of course it bolsters the state’s highway formula funding to benefit rural states.”
Water Resources Development Act Secures Tribal, Recreation Wins
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Two provisions within the WRDA package directly benefit tribal communities. Cramer helped pass the permanent reauthorization of the Corps’ Tribal Partnership, allowing USACE to perform feasibility studies for tribal water resource development projects. The bill also includes language Cramer championed directing the Corps to submit a report to Congress on land suitable to be transferred to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for improved recreation access and development, fulfilling a commitment made by Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Mike Connor during a visit with Cramer to Standing Rock in 2023.
The bill includes a version of Cramer’s bipartisan LAKES Act to improve management of recreation sites by allowing the USACE to enter into cooperative agreements with local stakeholders and retain recreation fees collected for the operation and maintenance of the site. The LAKES Act provides new opportunities for public-private investments and gives local USACE districts more flexibility to reinvest the resources they collect locally from visitors.
Cramer also secured wins for rural communities across North Dakota, to maximize federal cost shares, fund essential water infrastructure projects, and ensure communities have necessary resources for water infrastructure. The 594 Program, an essential source of funding for communities constructing water and wastewater infrastructure, now requires less non-federal cost share to be eligible for funding. Additionally, WRDA will increase the federal cost-share for inland waterway projects to 75% from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, providing enhanced support for communities pursuing infrastructure projects. WRDA also reauthorized the National Dam Safety Program, which is legislation Cramer joined U.S. Senator Padilla (D-CA) in introducing earlier this Congress. This program provides North Dakota much-needed support to oversee the management and safe operations of over 3,000 dams.
“Well there are lots of things about WRDA I really like, but I’m especially pleased with the strong emphasis that it has on really recognizing tribal sovereignty,” said Cramer. “You know, nobody knows their resources better than the people that live with them, and this is certainly true of our reservations and our tribal leaders. For too long, the federal government has been hoarding what are some of the most valuable and pretty natural resources when our local tribal leadership wants to use those resource for economic opportunities. In fact, it’s why I brought the Assistant Secretary for Civil Works, Mike Connor, out to Standing Rock to meet with the Standing Rock leaders and see these assets for himself. Our WRDA also includes priorities like the LAKES Act to localize Corps-managed recreational sites and strategically engage in public-private partnerships. I worked really hard both with my Senate colleagues and my House colleagues to get this in the bill.”
The Fiscally Responsible Highway Funding Act of 2024
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The Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program is a discretionary Department of Transportation financing authority. Each year, when TIFIA funding goes unused it disrupts the formula funding each state Department of Transportation receives. This bill redistributes these unspent funds to the states via formula, giving them greater flexibility to meet their infrastructure needs.
“My highest priority when we did the bipartisan infrastructure law a few years ago, was to maintain the maximum share of funding for North Dakota via what we call formula, that’s a swamp term for the way that money is distributed to states, recognizing that the miles of highway count as well as the population that they serve,” said Cramer. “The inclusion of the Fiscally Responsible Highway Funding Act bolsters this very principle by allowing unused funding to be repurposed and then distributed to the states via this traditional formula. It’s simple, for sure, but its also a critical change that gives our state DOTs additional funding certainty and then the autonomy to pursue the infrastructure projects that our large, rural states really need.”
Economic Development Administration Reauthorization
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For the first time in two decades, the EDA is reauthorized to reassert congressional direction over the agency and update its programs. This reauthorization includes changes to update funding levels in a fiscally responsible manner, prioritizes investments in hard infrastructure projects, provides new opportunities for small rural communities to receive assistance, and supports locally-driven economic development efforts.
The reauthorization of the EDA paves the way for communities of less than 10,000 people to receive EDA grants at 100% federal cost share if they meet economic distress criteria. Over 97% of North Dakota towns have less than 10,000 residents. Tribal communities will benefit from a dedicated Office of Tribal Economic Development to help access economic development assistance programs. To better serve North Dakotans, this authorizes the Northern Great Plains Regional Authority through Fiscal Year 2029.
“Well you know, as we begin this long, long-overdue process of realigning agencies with the original intent of Congress, the Economic Development Administration is really the first of many,” said Cramer. “Now this is an agency that I’m quite familiar with as a former Economic Development Director, of course we worked a lot with the EDA when I was there. Our reauthorization of EDA brings a much-needed update, and I mean much-needed, to better serve the rural and the tribal communities who need these programs most of all.”