04.10.13

Delegation Statement on the President's Failure to Include Funding for the F-M Diversion in His Budget

WASHINGTON – Senators John Hoeven and Heidi Heitkamp and Congressman Kevin Cramer today issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s failure to include funding for the Fargo-Moorhead diversion project in his Fiscal Year 2014 budget:

“We learned today that President Obama included no funding provision for the Fargo-Moorhead diversion project in his budget for the next fiscal year. This omission in the president’s budget is clearly unfortunate, since it will make our task of securing the federal share of project funding harder. Prior to the president’s decision, the Army Corps of Engineers included construction of the diversion project in its Chief’s Report, and further, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee voted to authorize it in the new Water Resources Development Act.

“We will continue to work toward securing authorization and continued funding for the project in Congress and hope to get authorization in the full Senate within the next two months.

“It makes more sense, in both dollars and human terms, to find a permanent solution to Fargo-Moorhead’s flood risk than it is does to mount an almost annual flood fight. We will also continue to work on all levels – local, state and federal – for broad support, and we will continue to make an aggressive case for permanent flood protection in Congress.”