The Priority Should Be Rebuilding Levees
There are some who believe that the United States government has an endless supply of money to do all things. I don't believe that. I believe that budgets are about priorities. These are the kinds of decisions that Missourians make every day with their budget.
For instance, you may want a new pickup truck, but you may not be able to buy it this year because you need to fix a leaky roof. We have to decide which of our needs gets the limited amount of resources that we have.
When you look at last year's Corps budget, from Gavin's Point dam to the mouth of the Missouri, we spent $73 million on wildlife restoration and only $6 million spent on levee maintenance. That budget was drawn up before we had a devastating flood that lasted for three months.
In the President's new budget, though, he actually increased the amount of money for wildlife habitat. It's now $90 million. That's an increase of $18 million. Money for flood control only increased by $8 million. That's a slap in the face to many people whose ground is still not protected by a fully rebuilt levee.
The priority should be to finish rebuilding the levees that were damaged last summer. We should not be spending even more money on habitat for birds and fish. We have human homes and businesses that are in needs of flood protection. The federal government should be spending the limited resources it has on getting those levees that were damaged rebuilt.
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Sincerely,
