Chuck Fleischmann Presses Army Corps Officials on ‘Preventing the Spread Of The Invasive Asian Carp

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During a House Appropriations Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN) questioned Army Corps Officials about water management and preventing the spread of Asian carp.

Transcript

00:00Thank each of you for being here today.

00:01Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

00:04And I thank you, Mr. Guest.

00:06At this time, we're going to engage in a second round of questions.

00:12Consistent with the first, I would ask that folks keep their questions to five minutes

00:17so that we all can ask additional questions.

00:19I will begin with myself.

00:23General Graham, a matter that has been discussed earlier,

00:26but of prime importance to me and members on both sides of this dais, is Asian carp.

00:33It's of tremendous importance to my home state, the great state of Tennessee,

00:37preventing the spread of invasive carp further into the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers.

00:43Program implementation has faced repeated and avoidable delays,

00:48despite robust funding provided by Congress.

00:51I appreciate the Nashville District's renewed commitment to this work.

00:56Time, however, is of the essence on this,

01:00and we cannot afford to be discussing this program development this time next year.

01:05Sir, where are we on finalizing the program implementation?

01:10And as a follow-up to that,

01:12what steps are you taking to work with the state of Tennessee

01:15and other prospective sponsors

01:16so that projects can be ready for funding and execution

01:20as soon as the program management plan is finalized?

01:23Thank you, sir.

01:24Mr. Chairman, thank you for that question.

01:27And we absolutely, our commitment is to

01:29do everything we can using our facilities to help limit the spread of invasive carp,

01:38both into the Great Lakes and throughout the Tennessee and Cumberland system

01:41and down through the Alabama and 10 Tom Bigby waterway.

01:47And so this program is tremendously important to us.

01:50And, Chairman, the direct answer to your question is we'll continue to work with the states

01:54to see if we can get them to act as a non-federal sponsor.

01:58We'll continue to work with great partners in the Tennessee Valley Authority

02:01to make sure that when the programatics are ready to go

02:04that we aren't trying to figure out the PPAs,

02:06that ideally that those are on the shelf ready to go.

02:09And I thank the general for his comments.

02:13And I just want to comment by saying as issues come up from time to time throughout the district,

02:20this is an issue that I literally hear from constituents throughout the year.

02:28They have meetings to discuss the invasive carp species.

02:33And they are literally scared environmentally, economically,

02:38because where the carp have become a major problem, it's been extremely devastating.

02:45So I thank the general for his efforts.

02:49But we really want to get that done,

02:50because I'm doing my best to assure these constituencies that I and the Corps

02:56and all the other partners are doing their very best to address this pressing concern.

03:02And I thank you, sir.

03:03And in that regard, and in the interest of time,

03:06I'm going to recognize my dear friend, again, Ms. Kaptur,

03:12the ranking member, for five minutes for her questions.

03:15Mr. Chairman, you know, I share your concern about the Asian carp.

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