ms. carter, we appreciate your testimony, there may be questions in a little bit. i would like to welcome steve cochran, restore mississippi delta coalition, thank you so much for joining us today. [inaudible] >> i want to thank senator cassidy for coming here this morning. i don't know if you noticed it but he has a bad cold and so i particularly appreciate him being willing to come out here today, i want to thank senator kennedy from our state as well, both of them do diligent work on behalf of our states vulnerable coastal communities. for the record, i'm steve cochran, associate vice president of environmental defense fund and restore the mississippi delta. we are a coalition of three national organizations, the national wide life federation and coalition to restore coastal louisiana and the lake baisn foundation, for over ten years the coalition has worked together across the louisiana coast in addition to my own written statement which is submitted for the record, coalition members national wildlife, also submitted written testimony and i hope the committee c

ms. carter, the army corp. component of the program that was established by wrda in 2014 has yet to get off the ground. that's the army corps portion. the epa has already implemented their portion. what are some of the challenges the corps is facing in implementing this program? and at this current pace, how long will it take for the corps to catch up to where epa is? >> thank you for question. indeed the wifia program for the corps has not been funded. and part of what has been going on is there is -- the corps has no history with a loan or loan guarantee program. so developing the guidelines and understanding how will those projects be scored in terms of the risks to the government have been some of the primary challenges. so as basically as those issues get worked through with either congressional or administration involved in those discussions of how do you score the risk, as those progress, then funding could be provided and the corps could start providing these loan and loan guarantees which could assist

ms. carter. >> one of the topics of concern in the future is dm and levee safety issues. the court should be coming out in the next few months with reports related to infrastructure needs in that area. also related to i walls which are one of the piece of infrastructure that failed in new orleans and retreated to the cost of the federal government for emergency response and recovery. figuring out how aging infrastructure fits into that package will eventually help or hinder the governments ability to manage its risks. >> with my hat on i would repeat what i said which is that they want to see continued movement toward full use and trust fund which would make a tremendous difference for a spread we are grateful for the progress that congress has made and you have made in that direction recently, the numbers are remarkable from where we were five or six years ago and then we would again submit that our waterways, our water infrastructure needs to be viewed as very high priority in any upcoming infrastructure legislation that is passed out of congress, and speaking for mysel

ms. carter, we appreciate your testimony. i would like to now welcome stephen cochran for coastal protection. thanks for joining us today. >> i also want to thank senator cassidy for coming here this morning. i don't know if you noticed it but he has a bad cold so i particularly appreciate him being willing to come out today. i wanted to thank senator kennedy from our state as well. . for the record i'm steve cochran. and director of collusion called restore the mississippi delta. coalition of three national organizations. and two louisiana based organizations. for over ten years, our coalition has worked together on land scape across the louisiana coast. in addition to my own written statement which is submitted for the record, coalition members, national wildlife has submitted as well. this morning i'd like to tell you the challenges in my home state louisiana where to be blunt senator cassidy said we have a cotal crisis. as congress begins to look at wrda, i want to focus on possible solutions. from what we believe are les

carter of georgia for today, ms. yvette clarke of new york for today, mr. defazio of oregon for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection the requests are granted. under the speaker's announced policy of january 3, 2018 -- 2017, the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. evans, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. evans: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i'd like to say to the chairman of the congressional black caucus, i appreciate this honor and this opportunity as well as all the other members who have given me this opportunity to kick off the second session of the congressional black caucus special order hours. mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the subject of this order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. evans: mr. speaker, i'd like to thank my colleagues, as i said earlier, for this opportunity. this is truly an opportunity for a young man who comes from the city of philadelphia and

ms. granger: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the chairman of the homeland security subcommittee judge john carter from texas. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. carter: i thank the gentlewoman for yielding. i rise in support of this defense appropriations bill which will provide full-year funding for the defense department so they can continue to effectively defend our country from an ever-expanding threat which exists in the world today. this bill ends uncertainty and ineffectiveness of a continuing resolution, allows the d.o.d. to plan and execute on the things they need to do today, not last year. our military needs to modernize, to face new threats they will face in this world and they can't do that with a c.r. this bill lifts sequestration caps which have, to paraphrase secretary mattis, caused more harm to our military than any enemy. lifting these caps for f.y. 2018 is essential towards improving the readiness of our force. the world is changing rapidly and so is the nature and threat of our military forces and what they e face day -- what face day and night. we dese