Rep. Larsen highlights Section 214 in House T&I markup of WRDA
Today, the House Transportation & Infrastructure (T&I) Committee considered the Water Resources Development Act of 2010 (WRDA). As previously reported in our Nor'wester, the bill featured language regarding Section 214, including a six-year extension of the authority to 2016. PNWA leads a national coalition to advocate for making Section 214 authority permanent. Most Members of the Northwest House delegation submitted requests to the Committee last fall to make the authority permanent. We are very pleased to report that Rep. Rick Larsen (D, WA-2) introduced an amendment in committee today to make Section 214 permanent. Rep. Larsen noted that "in a region where we must balance the most difficult environmental issues in the country with the second highest commerce and trade demands of any region in the nation, Section 214 has become key to overcoming permitting delay ... It is long past time to make the Section 214 program permanent." Larsen withdrew his amendment after getting a commitment from Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar to work together on making Section 214 permanent.
Section 214 is currently authorized through December 31, 2010. As it is unlikely that a WRDA bill will be enacted this year, we will be working with our colleagues in the Northwest House delegation to put together an extension bill that will likely be introduced in the House in early September. For more information, see PNWA's fact sheet on Section 214. The membership of PNWA is very grateful to Rep. Larsen for highlighting Section 214 during the markup today. This authority has been used with great success in the Northwest and elsewhere around the country for nearly ten years, and with the help of Rep. Larsen and our Northwest Congressional delegation, we are confident that users of the authority and the Corps of Engineers will one day have the predictability that will come with a permanent authority.
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