Ranking Member Kaptur Remarks at Fiscal Year 2026 Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation Budget Hearing

WASHINGTON — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH-09), Ranking Member of the Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Subcommittee, delivered the following remarks at the subcommittee’s fiscal year 2026 budget hearing for the Army Corps of Engineers (Civil Works) and the Bureau of Reclamation:

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. You build America, and we respect that. I welcome this opportunity to examine recent actions for the budget requests for the Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation.

Thank you to our witnesses for devoting your lives to the nation and for joining us today. Your agencies play a critical role in developing the resources of our land while mindful of our obligations to future generations. Your vital work strengthens our economy, sustains life on Earth, and ensures public safety against the now constant onslaught of both increasing natural and human-caused disasters across our country, which is growing in population, headed to half a billion people. For example, the Corps played a vital role in clearing the waterways after the Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore. Thank you so much. And you are currently carrying out wildfire debris removal in Los Angeles County. Thank you for your exemplary service to our country. You hold us together, and all those who serve in the Corps and the Bureau. 

The proposed cuts to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation are not just misguided – they are dangerous. Slashing their budgets and eroding their workforce endangers people’s lives and public safety, undermines economic growth, and weakens our national – the national welfare of the country – in the face of climate change.

Let’s start with the Corps of Engineers. Your work is not just about dams and levees. It’s about protecting lives and building America’s public infrastructure to manage flood control systems that safeguard our communities from the devastating effects of extreme weather. And we saw that this past week, with the terrible tornadoes from St. Louis and all surrounding states. 

Along the shores of Lake Erie – the largest freshwater system in the world – we know what’s at stake. Erosion, rising lake levels, the problems with algal blooms, and increasingly violent storms threaten homes, businesses, and public assets. We cannot build a safe and a habitable environment for our growing population on shrinking budgets and shrinking staff.

In the Great Lakes region, modernization of projects like the Soo Locks are a prime example of long overdue investments that will turbocharge our economy. One hundred percent of America’s domestic iron ore passes through the Soo Locks. Think about how important that makes this strategic infrastructure.

Steel is a $500 billion industry, it supports 123 thousand middle-class jobs, and I’m a strong advocate for reshoring the U.S. steel industry and growing those numbers, but we have to modernize the shipping lanes and the waterways, and our ports, for today and the future. This project will ensure our heartlands’ maritime, industrial, agricultural, and commercial products are safe and efficiently moved. 

Think about our region, it is the shortest distance by way of the Atlantic Ocean to the ports of northern Europe and beyond. Canada, the Great Lakes, and St. Lawrence Seaway hasten global trade, and President Eisenhower understood its place within our continental enterprise and global defense. So must we, as we witness the dawn of the new arctic age. 

Similarly, the Brandon Road project aims at arresting the potential enormous economic and environmental damage that can be unleashed by the invasion of the Asian carp. They could exterminate local and regional aquatic fish and species, and that would be devastating to our Great Lakes’ $7 billion fishery and its $16 billion recreational boating industry. These are astounding numbers. 

The Corps of Engineers has a return on investment of over 200 to 1 in terms of economic benefits for every dollar invested. Ports, locks, and inland waterways maintained by the Corps are vital arteries for our very large nation and its commerce. In the Great Lakes region alone, these investments ensure that goods – from American steel to Ohio soybeans – can reach domestic and global markets. And cuts to this work would cause costly delays, limit our competitiveness, and harm local economies.

Now, to the Bureau of Reclamation. Though it serves primarily the Western United States, its importance cannot be overstated. The Bureau manages water supply for over 31 million Americans in the dry, and I guess I would say, coming from my part of the country drier, Western states, irrigates 10 million acres of farmland, and generates hydropower for millions of homes.

In this time of unprecedented drought and water stress, we must bolster – not diminish – Reclamation’s capacity to invest in sustainable water systems and innovative conservation technologies. Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover understood what development west of the Mississippi River would require. So must we. 

Let’s be clear: disinvestment in the Corps and Bureau now will lead to higher costs down the road. Deferred maintenance becomes disaster recovery. Preventable failures become national emergencies.

I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle – this is not the time to retreat. It is time to lead. We must provide these agencies with the resources they need to protect our growing population, strengthen our economy, and safeguard our environment for generations to come.

Finally, I truly condemn the extreme politicization of critical Army Corps’ construction funding decisions, as we saw in last week’s work plan. It is yet another reminder that Congress must reclaim its authority over funding decisions by passing full-year appropriations bills.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and Members, and our guests. I yield back.

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