Congressman Steve King releases the following video of testimony he presented to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure this afternoon regarding policy priorities the committee should adopt in this session of Congress. King was invited to testify before the Committee by Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) and Ranking Member Sam Graves (R-MO).
“Sixteen years ago I signed on to support the Lewis & Clark Regional Water System. That addresses some 20 communities in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Iowa. We’ve always fallen short on the funding for that, and, so, we’ve limped along, but what has happened is the local government’s commitments have all been paid up front; it’s the federal government that is dragging along here trying to catch up. So I wanted to emphasize how important it is to complete and finish Lewis & Clark Regional Water System.”
Among the policy priorities King emphasizes in his testimony to the Committee are:
- Ensuring the Committee provides necessary federal funding to “complete and finish” the Lewis and Clark Regional Water System;
- Refurbishing the nation’s aging locks and dams and expanding them to facilitate greater river traffic;
- Providing resources that can be used to improve flood protection infrastructure along the Missouri River;
- Including funding for water, wastewater, and storm water infrastructure;
- Ensuring that “gas taxes” currently being paid by Americans go primarily to fund transportation infrastructure projects like roads and bridges and not to other priorities.
