By Bill Shuster Hurricane Florence may have unleashed its fury on the Carolinas and the East Coast, but with rains continuing and floodwaters still rising, the danger is far from over. For now, we can only guess at the amount of devastation caused by this historic hurricane. Other sections of the country also continue to recover from recent disasters, such as hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria; wildfires that have scorched much of the western U.S. in the past year; and more flooding throughout the Northeast and Midwest. Disasters, both natural and man-made, will always pose a threat, and every community in America will face a disaster at some point. A sobering fact is that the costs of disaster, measured in lives lost and property destroyed, have been steadily increasing in the United States over the past 50 years. We should seize any opportunity to lessen these impacts and costs, help our recovering communities, and reduce the burdens facing our first responders and local, state and federal emergency officials. Reform Is Possible One such opportunity is before Congress now. The Disaster Recovery Reform Act (DRRA) is a bipartisan bill that has overwhelmingly passed the House twice since December, but it hasn't yet made it through the Senate. My Republican and Democratic colleagues and I -- including the bill's chief sponsor, Rep. Lou Barletta -- are working to finally see this measure signed into law. Legislation to be voted on by the House this week (H.R. 302) includes DRRA again, and the Senate will hopefully take up the bill soon afterward. The reasons Congress need to send DRRA to the president' desk as soon as possible are simple. Right now, federal disaster programs are too reactive. We wait for disaster to strike and then try to clean up afterward, often rebuilding our homes, communities and infrastructure exactly the way they were before. Even when the way things were before may have been insufficient, inefficient or ineffective. DRRA would mark a significant shift in how we prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate against disasters by focusing more on pre-disaster mitigation -- actions taken proactively before disaster strikes to lessen future impacts and losses. This legislation will get the most value out of our precious resources by incentivizing building better and smarter to protect Americans, as well as facilitating speedy recovery efforts whenever and wherever disasters occur. Effective mitigation minimizes the potential loss of life and property from a disaster -- based on identifying and understanding the risks in a given area or community. Mitigation can encompass a wide variety of activities that reduce the risk of future damage or loss, including preparation and planning, flood-proofing critical facilities like hospitals, elevating or moving structures prone to flooding, and hardening structures against hurricanes or earthquakes. Mitigation vs. Recovery To put this in perspective, imagine that you are living in the path of the next hurricane. Ask yourself, "Am I better off preparing for the gale force winds, flooding, and power outages before the hurricane gets here, or waiting until after it's demolished my house?" We should ask ourselves the same question on a grand scale. Not only does mitigation save lives, it is a more cost-effective, wiser use of taxpayer dollars. Studies demonstrate that for every $1 spent on mitigation, between $4 and $8 is saved in avoided disaster-recovery costs. It costs less to prevent and minimize damage and to strengthen our communities than it does to simply spend resources on recovery afterward: a common-sense approach but not one that our federal programs currently emphasize. Facilitating and incentivizing mitigation is the most effective means of bending the cost curve for disasters. Furthermore, DRRA helps address some key challenges affecting disaster recovery and puts more tools in the toolbox to help communities' ongoing efforts to return to normal. For instance, the bill will clarify federal programs to help expedite assistance, resolve issues quickly and rebuild more efficiently; provide more flexibility in meeting disaster survivors' housing needs; simplify federal requirements for individuals and state and local governments; help communities meet the needs of pets in disasters; and make the disaster assistance process more transparent. We cannot let this opportunity to save lives and reduce federal, state and local disaster costs get lost amid the always hectic agenda when the end of a Congress is near. The best way to protect Americans and our communities from disaster is to prepare in advance, and by passing the Disaster Recovery Reform Act.

By Bill Shuster, Randy Weber and Brian Babin America's infrastructure is a continual point of discussion in Washington, now more than at any time in recent memory. The Trump administration helped raise the level of interest and deserves credit for taking executive action to expedite the completion of infrastructure improvements. As leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, we oversee important pieces of legislation to improve and reform the way we invest in infrastructure. Our bills are often approved with bipartisan support because our fellow committee members understand how essential infrastructure is to every American and to our economic competitiveness. As the conversation about a broad infrastructure plan continues to develop, our committee is moving ahead with its work. Four weeks ago, the House overwhelmingly approved an FAA and aviation infrastructure bill by a vote of 393 to 13. Last week, we turned our attention to the ports, dams, inland waterways, ecosystem restoration, flood protection systems and other components of the nation's water resources infrastructure. This infrastructure improves the arteries of commerce that move goods from our heartland to our coasts and connect American products to foreign markets, accounting for billions of dollars in economic activity. To protect and improve it, we introduced the Water Resources Development Act of 2018, commonly known as WRDA. WRDA authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study and undertake infrastructure enhancements that strengthen our economy, connect and protect our communities, and bolster our competitiveness abroad. When Congress fails to pass WRDA, as it did in the seven years between 2007 and 2014, plans for water infrastructure improvements collect dust while those projects' costs compound. Fortunately WRDAs were signed into law in both 2014 and 2016, and on June 6, the House overwhelmingly passed our 2018 bill, 408 to 2. It's critical to maintain regular order and continue sending these infrastructure bills to the president's desk every two years. Simply put, WRDA works. One specific example of how WRDA works is the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay coastal storm risk management and ecosystem restoration project. With our bill, the Corps can begin construction on this improvement that will protect lives, communities and property. Last year, the region was changed forever by Hurricane Harvey. The timely authorization of the Sabine Pass to Galveston Bay project will strengthen critical protections to neighborhoods, jobs, businesses and infrastructure. Port Arthur, which was underwater in the aftermath of Harvey, will benefit from higher levees and seawalls. Near Orange, the Corps will build a new system of over 26 miles of levees and floodwalls around the Sabine and Neches River floodplains. The third element of the project will focus on Freeport and its vicinity, raising and adding to floodwalls in Brazoria County. Additionally, through the Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Study, the Corps is continuing to develop a comprehensive plan to provide long-term protection for the Gulf Coast region, including Galveston, Harris and Chambers counties. Overall, this project will provide long-lasting community protections and increase resilience for future storms. Not all of the Corps' missions focus on flood prevention. The agency also undertakes navigation improvements that are critical to every state. Ports such as Galveston, Houston, Beaumont, Orange, Freeport and Port Arthur host thousands of vessels per year, facilitating billions of dollars of economic activity and underpinning thousands of jobs in the region. WRDA 2018 authorizes the Galveston Harbor Channel Extension Project to make the entire Galveston Harbor Channel the same navigable depth and contribute significantly to the economic efficiency of commercial navigation in the region. Throughout the nation, many of the goods we use every day find their way to us after traveling through one of the country's ports or along our thousands of miles of navigable waterways. This efficient and effective transportation system gets our goods to and from markets, both domestic and abroad: another reason to maintain this infrastructure by regularly considering WRDA legislation. There are many other examples of how WRDA works for America, and why we consider our work on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to be so important to our constituents and the country. We now call on the Senate to take action on these critical infrastructure issues and work with us to move America's infrastructure into the 21st century.

By Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock, and Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa. Our nation's infrastructure has rarely received such attention as it has over the last year. The administration should be credited for helping to raise the profile of infrastructure, while taking direct steps to expedite the completion of projects. Time is money, and the longer it takes to bring infrastructure improvements on line, the higher the costs will escalate on taxpayer-funded projects. As leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, we have worked to develop and pass important legislation to improve infrastructure because it's vital to the lives of the people we represent in many ways. As the political discussion about infrastructure legislation continues to develop, our committee is moving ahead with its work. In April, for example, the House overwhelmingly approved our committee's FAA and aviation infrastructure bill by a vote of 393 to 13. As we wait for the Senate to act on that measure, we've turned to improving our water resources infrastructure. Our ports, dams, levees, inland waterways, storage facilities and flood protection systems serve as the arteries of American commerce, protecting communities and moving goods from the coasts to every point throughout the nation's interior. Efficient water transportation also allows our farmers and businesses to be competitive by connecting them and their goods, resources, and food to the rest of the world. For example, the farms and economy of California's Central Valley depend on this infrastructure to deliver billions of dollars worth of fruits, vegetables and nuts to customers all over the globe. Ports like the inland hub of the Port of Stockton bring this bounty to the world, but without efficient navigation channels, shipping costs would skyrocket, suppressing the economy and damaging the region's competitiveness as an international agricultural center. To regularly consider and authorize U.S. Army Corps of Engineers projects like the Lower San Joaquin River flood damage reduction project and carry out water resources infrastructure improvements across the country, our committee takes up legislation known as the Water Resources Development Act. In 2014 and 2016, we ensured that this legislation was signed into law; the House has now approved the next WRDA measure, which we sponsored. Many projects undertaken by the Corps are paid for by a minimal 0.125 percent fee on commercial cargo, which goes into the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund and is dedicated to the upkeep of the nation's navigable harbors, like the Port of Oakland and the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. In WRDA 2014, our committee set goals for allocating Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund dollars to their intended purpose of responsibly maintaining safe, efficient navigation channels. As a result, Congress has increased its investment in our waterways, and WRDA 2018 continues that approach. In the long term, this approach will save millions of dollars and improve the efficiency of moving goods. This matters to us all, because regardless of where we live, most products we use every day reach us via a port or along the 25,000 miles of our navigable waterways. We will continue to work to achieve full utilization of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund. We should also explore improving other existing programs, like the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act. We authorized WIFIA in 2014 to leverage federal dollars with state and local cost shares for clean and drinking water projects. Now, the Corps is pursuing the benefits of the program. Furthermore, Congress should consider the merits of Bureau of Reclamation financing to increase water storage in western states. In addition to improving our critical waterborne transportation system, another of the Corps' missions is maintaining the infrastructure that protects American communities from flooding. The importance of this mission is well known to the residents of the Central Valley and was recently emphasized further by the devastating natural disasters throughout the country in 2017. The Corps operates and maintains approximately 700 dams in the United States, and more than 14,000 miles of levees are in the Corps' Levee Safety Program, infrastructure that protects millions of Americans and over a trillion dollars' worth of property. The 2014 and 2016 WRDA laws authorized flood risk management improvements around the country, because every dollar invested in flood protection provides $8 in economic benefit. WRDA 2018 continues to protect American communities and infrastructure from the threat of flood by investing in improvements like the Lower San Joaquin River flood damage reduction project. There are many other examples of why WRDA works -- for Californians, Pennsylvanians, and all of America. We look forward to working with the Senate to send WRDA and other infrastructure legislation to the president's desk.