The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must do a better job in finding and implementing sustainable solutions to massive flooding in Iowa, U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said during an April 17 U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works field hearing held in Glenwood, Iowa.
“Having your farmland, homes and businesses flooded out every few years cannot become a ‘fact of life’ for folks who live in the vicinity of the Missouri River,” said Sen. Ernst during Wednesday’s Senate Committee hearing. “This trend of flood and rebuild, flood and rebuild must end. If $1.6 billion plus in damages to our state is the best the Corps can do in a situation like this — that is simply unacceptable.”
Witnesses who testified during the hearing — entitled, “Oversight Hearing on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Management of the 2019 Missouri River Basin Flooding” — included Corps officials and local leaders and stakeholders from Fremont County, Iowa, among others. U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) also participated in the hearing.
Sen. Ernst, who chaired the hearing, confronted the Corps’ oversight and management of the 2019 Missouri River Basin flooding that has caused at least $1.6 billion in damages in Iowa.
“I want to emphasize that this hearing is not just in the past tense; this is an ongoing disaster — people are hurting, the floodwaters are still in homes and neighborhoods, and lives have yet to be rebuilt,” the senator said. “Today’s conversation is only one in a broader dialogue about solutions that will help Iowans who are in dire need. I’m hopeful that what we’ve heard today will help shed light on what those solutions may be.”
The field hearing continues efforts by Sen. Ernst to provide aid to Iowans in the wake of this year’s river flooding.
On April 10, for example, she cosponsored the Disaster Tax Relief Act of 2019, S. 1133, to provide tax relief for people in areas of Iowa and Nebraska that have been declared a major disaster by the president.