to the house gaveling in. that the senate passed, without an amendment, h.r. 6124. that the senate agrees to conference with the house of representatives h.r. 6147. that the senate agrees to conference with the house of representatives h.r. 6157. with best wishes, i am, signed incerely, karen l. haas. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house an enrolled bill. clip h.r. 6124, an act to amend title 2 of the social security act to authorize voluntary agreements for coverage of indian tribal councilmembers and

or other purposes.

the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the house declares the house in recess for a period not more

mr. lamalfa: i'm asking you sir, will the army corps and e.p.a. work with the other land management agencies to make their jurisdictional determination so land users have issuesea wrda directives

that someone decides that a ermit is needed. mr. lamalfa: what about the concept that the permit wasn't needed to be needed clearly and reinterpretations done by some divisions of the corps that have seen to have gone off on their own tangents. major general spellmon: i'm not familiar with the details but

we'll look into this. mr. lamalfa: check it out, sacramento and redding office. for example. you are familiar with disking in agriculture? similar to plowing but it's an implement that is fode behind a tractor that has disks that rotate on it that turns the soil slightly and reincorporates that disking that is used for wetland management and mosquito abatement, protection from nvasive plant speaks yes, sir. but only to very slightly if at all. so we have agency using this as a tool that they need and i'm

glad they do, but the corps and attempt say disking is an activity that requires a permit by a farmer because it creates slight mounds and changes the top oggra if i. we heard a couple of cases when you have gone out and disked the field because it creates these mounds that it is looking as a highland and low land that is regulated by some of the people in the division here. do you think that should be a standard of the army corps? major general spellmon: i have not run across this particular issue and i would like the opportunity to get back to my staff and get additional detail of procedures that are being made in the field in this regard. mr. lamalfa: we would be happy to supply you that information and get back to us. are you familiar with the nursing settlements that

happened in california? major general spellmon: no. mr. lamalfa: they settled for over a million dollars after it had been idle for several years with the idea that land is idle and farmers fallow their lands and now that requires a permit and somehow disturbed a waterway of the united states. so do you think the army corps is going to extend that decision to more and more retroactive activity by other farmers around the country? major general spellmon: i don't know the answer. we will get back to you on this issue. mr. lamalfa: this has been an out of control situation not the intent of the law or congress and i think your organization. so i would ask you to look into the sacramento division and what their activity has been in northern california. major general spellmon: we will.

mr. graves: i want to make note that is a problem in louisiana and i have heard from other members. o to ms. esty. ms. esty: i had two points i wanted to raise and thank you for coming before us. nd there is when deadlines are up. in my district there are a number of organizations that have been looking to and working with my office to try to figure out whether it's appropriate to request a grant and didn't realize when the deadlines are. i would urge that more be dodge with every member of congress to get them out to our communities, nonprofits, counsel councils of government, counties because those of us on the committee have communities that were not

aware of this. so i think we can do a better b and i'm telling you i have been on this committee and subcommittee for six years and had organizations and nonprofits . and they're early. if you look in line of the pretty early deadlines and people when other deadlines are and as early as they are, i think we can do a better job and give you a better feedback. the second was on coordination and some of the nontraditional uses. in my district, we have a dam in thomaston. the community is looking all over the northeast for greenways to do bikeways, walkways, reclaim our rivers. a lot of that in a state of my

connecticut. we have a lot of lot of water. we have too much water and the risk of aging dams. we have been having trouble with getting proposals like that considered. so i would ask that to recognize that depending on the part of the country, it would be helpful o local to community involvement and appropriate usage and we've met and have meetings with the corps to talk about this. we have talked about them regionally, but i think that will help the public there to understand that the corps is there to help our purposes but when appropriate constructive use of areas and we have several things like greenways in addition to your flooding area. the 5th district of connecticut

will be back with proposals from new britain, connecticut which has dam work and dredging they are looking for help with permits. and we worked on continuing authorities' projects and eager to see more funding there and raising those limits so we can get more of those projects again. good relationship with the corps on the committee. but we could always do better. major general spellmon: we'll follow up in our district on both of these topics. ms. esty: i yield back.

mr. graves: mr. mitchell. mr. mitchell: thank you chairman graves for the opportunity to testify in this hearing and thank you for coming today. i thank you for service to our nation and service in the corps of engineers. i appreciate the efforts of your staff before you came. they looked at the economic analysis to talk about the analysis. i have a fair amount of water around me in the great lakes, but important water. this hearing is an example of congress and the administration working together to meet infrastructure improvements. only two wayward members didn't understand the importance of the water resources development act and that is quite a feat around here. is a your the lock critical source of

infrastructure in this nation. 1985, congress authorized a new ock, because we only have one. and nearly all domestic iron ore goes through that lock because it acome dates freighters. it is an economic concern and my appreciation for sitting down in talking about the economic assumptions that were going in that report. while this is my first term in congress, since day one, the sue locks was important. this isn't the first time. it was discussed at the house armed services committee that i sat on and became a component of the report of the ndaa this year. i was pleased that the president spoke up to say saying we need to deal with the sue locks and

if the pole lock goes down, people will lose their jobs. i appreciate all your work and the study you have done and will work with you to ensure that we secure the funding we need to go to the next step. >> we are going to take you live to the house. for what purpose does the gentleman from idaho seek recognition? mr. simpson: i move the house do adjourn. the speaker pro tempore: the question is on the motion to those in favor say aye. those opposed, no. the ayes have it. the motion is dipetted. accordingly, the house stands

adjourned until 3:30 p.m. on monday, september 10, 2018. building the lock is critical. thank you very much. i yield back.

mr. graves: the gentleman from georgia, mr. woodall. mr. woodall: thank you for your partnership on all the projects we are working on. we are particularly proud of what's going on in savannah. long time coming and you never gave up on making that happening and we are about to having economic results for the entire southeastern states. i want to talk about in terms of 21st century is recurrent flows. i represent a county that spent $billion dollars on a water treatment plant to pump the water back in to our core lake cleaner than we took it out. we sit on the continental divide. if you dump your cup of water out, it runs into the gulf and if you dump on the other side,

it goes into the atlantic. knowing that that water system s so threatened with overutilizeation or supply, we make an effort to put as much as we can back into that basin and we talk about water allocations, we get no credit for billion dollar water treatment plant that is doing it better and take more stewardship responsibility than any other community in the basin. if we are to encourage jurisdictions to take those risks and make those benefits that is going to benefit us all as a community, region, a nation, we have got to be skin in the game for making bad speak to ould you that? major general spellmon: i agree with you. i have much to learn about lake lan year and this basin and the

project, the recycling project that you mentioned. i would love the opportunity to get down there and walk the ground with your staff and constituents and come back to you on the massive reallocation that you mentioned. mr. woodall: i know folks want to be good stewards and the community is putting its money where its mouth is and encourages people to make good water policy which will encourage more stewardship in the water basin. we have forums to poke the corps for things that didn't go the way we wanted them. i get telephone calls from constituents. i have some wheelchair-bound family members who live on lake lannier, you have to roll over corps property and they have rules about how you can develop at property and they put

together a pathway that they could use to get from the house to the dock. i mentioned that to our local corps leadership and they said not on my watch is that going to be true. these rule are in place to protect communities, these rules are in place to empower communities and these rules are not in place to stifle families who are trying to do the very best they can with the hand they have been dealt and you all stepped in and made the necessary waivers and allocations such that those family members are now utilizing their facilities and those families feel included in our entire regulatory process. it could have been a multi year headache or one of those things that we argued about for a decade, but instead it was one of those things that your men and women on the ground took responsibility for and said we can do better and wished it never happened to these families.

i want to thank you for giving the teams on the ground the flexibility to make these things happen. major general spellmon: i'm aware and missouri river and columbia river and i thank you for the comment. mr. woodall: one final accolade, we had thefts start to pick up. and one of the regulations we had is trying to keep docks up to code is security cameras were prohibited on docks such as washers and drires, but security cameras made that list. you partnered with us last summer to change that regulation and made a real difference in terms of home owners and security of water craft. once upon a time, four, five years ago, would have been like pulling teeth. you have made it possible and i'm grateful for changing the

partnership spirit that the people on the lake are feeling. i yield back. mr. graves: thank you, mr. woodall. i recognize myself. 203 has been submitted to the orps of engineers myself and congressman sa lease are frustrated. could you give us an update on that 203? major general spellmon: it is under review. i believe specifically it is with office of management and budget and went over to the office in early august. i believe they have upwards of 60 days to conduct a review. mr. graves: how long did it take the corps to review this? major general spellmon: i can get you that answer. i don't know. mr. graves: i think i have it already. but i want to reiterate the urgency of that project. it would be unfortunate to miss

the window that we have on this bill right now to authorize construction of that project. i want to make note, this project dates back to 1998 as i recall and the project, according to the corps of engineers' own schedule was supposed to be completed -- even on your revised schedule, which was crazy, i think it came back and suggested 2008, which a project that was authorized or a stud authorized in 1998, shared completion by the corps in 2008. so 10 years to look at a deepening project. then when the corps continued spinning the wheels they converted it to a 203. i want to reiterate the urgency there.

general, next question, a general has ordered the corps of engineers to move forward on a reorganization plan. you are familiar with the house bill that does direct the g.a.o. to conduct a study looking at a different home agency for the corps of engineers. i support this component of it looks at re-organizing a portion of the corps when the department of interior and department of transportation. while i'm not willing to endorse, there are some compatibility issues being in the department of defense. i talked to secretary mattis iran, it korea and is not compatible. where is the corps on that? major general spellmon: we had the opportunity to brief both the general, secretary james and

a doctor. we walked them through the early stages of a mission analysis, what are the limitations and constraints, what are some of the legislation that would have to be changed in order to implement this particular proposal. what i shared with all three including the doctor, after walking him through the six major bodies of legislation that has to be changed, we do not think it would be wise to separate water management to federal agencies. the eight project purposes in many cases that congress asked us to achieve with water above and below our projects, those decisions ought to remain in one agency. the second concern that we outlined to our leadership was the loss of the civil works work force and the impact to the department of defense. sir, you know there are 22,900 civil works employees in the

corps and do much more than civil works. so today, you have so today you have them modernizing the mosul dam in iraq. we have civil works employees in afghanistan working on the northeast and southeast power system. again, in support of the combatant command there are. you're familiar that we sent civil works employees to puerto rico to restore the power grid when the nation called. so the guidance that came out of secretary mattis' staff was, as we could this planning, is there a way we maintain that capability, either internally, or have an expeditionary capability? -- in other agencies? we're on the very early stages of outlining all of this to our leadership and we have more work to do. it's the same people, the same staff that's trying to deliver on this record supplemental and program that congress entrusted us with, that we'd be doing this particular planning.

>> thank you. just want to quickly note a couple of other things. one, i do want to thank you and thank your team for the allocation of supplemental funds. mr. graves: we do plan on having a hearing. i know there are a number of members from texas and florida, as well as myself, members from louisiana and other states, that are very interested in the implementation plan, want to ensure a proper oversight. want to discuss with you the potential for where 1043 authority may apply to ensure expedited implementation of those projects. also would like to talk you to a little about some of the problems we had with permits, particularly the shell fish caucus issues and your former area of operation, west. and lastly, we are going to submit questions to you on the record pertaining to some of the projects that are being altogether -- excuse me, we're having oversight over today. in particular, the lower san quinton. we're talking about potentially $42 million a mile. for that project. much of which is existing

levees. i have questions about seattle harbor, you're talking about $65 a cubic yard of material. i understand it's locally preferred plan. want to make sure we understand those components. this is an extraordinary cost. i would like cost per cubic yard for the norfolk harbor. san juan harbor, i know this is a really important project for recovery, thinking about $350 million to be borne by the island of puerto rico right now when we all know their financial situation. in addition to the authorization of this project, i think we need to have a discussion about a financial plan. i think that should include obviously my friend, mrs. napolitano, but also congresswoman gonzalez needs to be a part of this. we need to know how to implement this. this is part of their recovery. we need to make sure we don't just authorize it but we have a feasible, financial plan of how to move forward. lastly, on the sioux locks. looking at this, you're increasing your contingency to

37%. 37% contingency on this probably. 37% is a high cost. this project dates back decades . you also were showing a 700% variance in your b.c. ratio. those numbers, you're asking us to authorize nearly $1 billion project. that's an awful lot of wiggle room. you've got to give us some confidence that you know what you're doing and that this is going to be a good investment for taxpayers. so i would like to learn a little bit more about that one. but with that, i'm over time. any other questions that folks have? the gentlewoman from california. >> thank you, mr. chair. no, i'll also submit my questions for the record. i do have some. mr. graves: are we good? all right. so, general, again, i want to

thank you very much for being here today. i know this was your first time and know you haven't been in that job very long. so i do appreciate you getting up to speed on all of these issues that are important to the subcommittee and to the full committee. if there are no further questions, i want to thank you for being here today and this has been informative and helpful. this is going to be probably one of our final -- there should be a few others, but i do want to make note and i'm sure there are going to be other opportunities in closing that our full committee chairman, mr. shuster, is retiring from the congress. it has been an incredible pleasure to work with him. he has been able to get us on a track for a two-year wrda cycle. he's been a very fair, bipartisan chairman. i remember when i first came to the congress, i told him of my interest to join the committee, i think he got right up in my face in a very intimidating manner and said, are you going

to do what i say? i very sheepishly said, when you're right. he really has been a great chairman to work with and really been very fair on policy. i think we're going to see incredible reforms and i'm very excited to see implementation of this legislation, of f.a.a. legislation, disaster recovery. of course the fast act. and many other bills that are going to be an important part of his legacy. but most importantly, affect the lives of every american. so he's going to have an important legacy and i do appreciate the opportunity to work with him. if no other members have anything else to add, then the committee stands adjourned. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018]

>> earlier today, former president obama received an award for ethics in government and delivered remarks at the university of illinois in urbana. we'll have it for you tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span. and president trump was at a fundraiser today in fargo, north dakota, for congressman kevin cramer, who's challenging incumbent democrat for a senate seat. you can see that tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span, also online at c-span.org, or you can listen with the free c-span

radio app. >> kids are kids everywhere. they want your attention, they want to feel important. and they want to understand what's going on in the world. >> my worry is that they're intimidated and so they become the little mouse in the classroom and feel that they don't have those kind of dinner table conversation lings. therefore they feel that they can't throw their ideas out. >> with hamilton, that's the rage. they love it. we have a karaoke contest in class because they know the songs and they'll go on and on singing and i'm like, let's have a contest and talk about the issues in the songs. i think when we make it relevant, they enjoy it, they engage and they learn. >> saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span, meet the middle and high school civics teachers who participated in the c-span classroom annual educators conference. saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. c-span.org. or on the free c-span radio

app. >> sunday night on q&a, assistant editor at the atlantic, zachary wood, talks about his book and growing up in a troubled home. >> my phone starts ringing. and i go and i pick it up and i see it's my mom. for some reason i just had a sense, this is not going to be good. i answered the phone. she spoke. she was very calm. curt but very calm. zachary, child protective services is here. please come home as soon as you can. and i knew, that tone in her voice. child protective services is here. i'm asking myself, am i going to live to see the next day? really. like, that is what is diagnose through my mind. -- that is what is going through my mind. am i go going to live to see the next day? because she, if at ever any

point she has a moment alone with me and i make it through whatever happens when i get home and talk to them, lord knows what she's going to do. >> zachary wood, sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> state department officials testified on u.s.-cuba relations and the government response to the attacks on embassy personnel in havana. this was held before the house foreign affairs subcommittee on the western hemisphere. >> a quorum being present, the subcommittee will come to order. i would like to recognize myself for an opening statement. y,