During a House Appropriations Committee hearing before the congressional recess, Rep. Michael Guest (R-MS) questioned Army Corps Officials about infrastructure modernization requirements.
00:04To our witnesses, thank you for joining us today.
00:08As we begin, I want to first mention the incredible work, the research and development that we see the Army Corps is conducting at your ERDC sites across the country.
00:18I know that there are seven labs across four states, New Hampshire, Illinois, Virginia, and then my home state of Mississippi.
00:26So I always want to take a moment to brag about the incredible work and what I believe is a substantial return on investment that those sites provide, not only the Army Corps of Engineers, but the American public as a whole.
00:41As we start looking at FY26 budgets, I see that at least the information we have, we see a reduction in the Army Corps of Engineers budget.
00:51And while I and other members of this committee want to be good stewards of taxpayer dollars, I believe that the funding of the Army Corps of Engineers is an investment.
01:03It is an investment for the American public.
01:07Unlike some other spending that the federal government may authorize, the money that we spend on the Army Corps of Engineers is extremely important.
01:17And you do some amazing work.
01:20And so as we look at the potential of a reduction in budget going into the next budgetary cycle, I know that the Army Corps manages a large portfolio of infrastructure across the country.
01:32Some of that infrastructure is aging.
01:33And so can you talk just generally about how we're going to make sure that with a reduction in budget that we are delivering on the commitments that we've made to various communities across our nation?
01:51So if I may, I think just like we were talking about earlier with Mr. Levin, we're going to continue to focus on the priorities of the administration, right?
02:00So I would expect those same priorities to be focused on life safety, flooding, and American prosperity.
02:05That extends a broad net.
02:07It doesn't mean other things aren't included, but we believe that will be the initial umbrella under which we will fall.
02:12And there are many, many investments there.
02:14And then I want to talk just about one instance specific to my district.
02:22I know that as we continue to move forward, we have issues at times with staffing, with personnel.
02:32Press release came out just today from the Army Corps of Engineers Mobile District announcing the closure of roughly half a dozen
02:43recreational sites across their area of control.
02:49One of those there in my home state of Mississippi, in which is a 3,800-acre lake, about 11,000 total acreages within the recreational area that has been closed at least temporarily.
03:07No time frame as to how long those closures will last as we come into Memorial Day, as we come into the 4th of July, the summer months where people would be much more likely to use these recreational areas.
03:23And also these recreational areas have an economic impact to the businesses that serve those.
03:29Concerned that these temporary closures may last through the summer, well into the summer.
03:38Again, the times in which these facilities would be most used, we see at least this facility that I'm talking about specifically is being shuttered indefinitely.
03:48And so I just ask one, and I hope that this is the exception to the rule, that we don't see widespread closures across the country.
03:58But I would just ask for a commitment from each of you that you would look into the closings of this facility and the facilities in general to see that these facilities reopen as quickly as possible,
04:12knowing that we need to make sure the facilities are properly maintained, that we are providing safety for those individuals that use those facilities,
04:21but balancing maintenance and public safety also with the use of those facilities.
04:26And so if you all would each promise me that you all would look into the reopening of these facilities as quickly as possible, I would greatly appreciate it.
04:34If anyone would like to respond further, would be happy to, but not asking for a more thorough response than that.
04:40I would like to respond briefly, if that's okay.
04:43Appreciate you raising this, right?
04:45The recreation is an incidental mission for all of our projects, right?
04:48But a huge one to the local economy and what people see every day in their lives.
04:51And yet we find ourselves in this situation where we're downsizing our workforce because of voluntary departures from federal service,
05:00and that's hit some places hard, and recreation is the first one that's really coming about.
05:04And so we are working with the Corps to work through a process to figure out how we can start to bring folks on during a hiring process.
05:10It is challenged by how close this was happening as Memorial Day to Labor Day season opens, right?
05:17And so that seasonal workforce is hard to gather.
05:19We're still hoping to get some of it, but we're working through it with a goal of at least partial opening,
05:25knowing that we're going to have some workforce challenges across.
05:27And to the workforce point, broader workforce, we're just now starting to see the numbers.
05:32And so we're actively managing it across portfolios, including recreation.
05:35Well, thank each of you for being here today.
