NCGA Urges Growers to Step Up Outreach Efforts for Passage of WRDA (9-12-06)

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is urging growers to increase their outreach efforts and contact their congressmen to support efforts by Reps. Kenny Hulshof (R-Mo.) and Marion Berry (D-Ark.) to complete the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) conference report. 

Hulshof and Berry have initiated a “Dear Colleague” letter to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) and Ranking Member James Oberstar (D-Minn.) in order to gain support for the House version of WRDA and maintain a unified stance supporting provisions that would ensure the planning process of the U.S. Corps of Engineers is productive. The letter urges House conferees to hold firm in favor of H.R. 2864, which passed overwhelmingly, by a 406-14 vote in July 2005.

“Progress in getting the WRDA conference report passed seems to be accelerating, and we will continue to push for passage until the final signing of the bill,” said Gerald Tumbleson, NCGA president. “The river transportation system is critical for U.S. agriculture and the transportation of numerous other goods. Through WRDA, we can provide necessary modernization of an outdated infrastructure.”
 
NCGA is encouraging House members to support Section 2030 of H.R. 2864, which provides for a workable enhancement to independent peer review that will improve the decision-making performance of the Corps. NCGA is urging growers to state their concerns on the Senate-passed Corps reform provisions that would provide for an unworkable and strangling solution.

“We are encouraging all growers and their legislators to support the Hulshof-Berry letter,” Tumbleson said. “National water policy should ensure projects are not unreasonably delayed or made prohibitively expensive with multiple and duplicative reviews,”
 
The cut-off date for signatures to the Hulshof-Berry letter is Sept. 14. NCGA is encouraging corn growers to have their legislators contact Aaron Smith in Hulshof’s office (aaron.smith@mail.house.gov) and Gabe Horwitz (gabe.horwitz@mail.house.gov) in Berry’s office and sign onto the letter.