Stephens Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Arkansas U.S. Reps. Steve Womack and Rick Crawford today defended a Republican plan to steer $1.5 billion in unobligated high-speed rail funds to Midwestern disaster relief.

Speaking on the House floor, the two freshmen Republicans argued that Congress should put a priority on helping communities devastated by floods this spring.

“In my district of Arkansas, the cresting of the Illinois River has ripped apart roads, washed out bridges,” said Womack, of Rogers.

Arkansas farmers have lost at least $500 million in crops and hundreds of families are now homeless, Womack said, adding, “We have people living in tents.”

Crawford, of Jonesboro, said people in his district have been devastated by heavy floods.

“The community of Spring Lake, which is home to 32 families, was completely flooded with several feet of water. So far, only three of those families have moved back into their homes,” he said.

Rural areas of the district survive on agriculture and at least 50,000 acres of farmland was flooded, wiping out the entire corn crop and most of the rice plantings, Crawford said.

“Flood disasters across the South have taken a huge toll on our way of life and touched nearly everyone in our district. We must ensure we retain the vital funding to the Corps of Engineers so we can repair and reinforce our levees so citizens can live in safety and our economy can recover,” he said.

The House continued debate today on a bill that would fund federal energy and water programs in the fiscal year that begins in October.

The House Appropriations Committee proposed bill would take about $1.5 billion in high-speed rail money from grants that the Obama administration announced in May for high-speed rail projects and use it instead for disaster relief. Arkansas was not included in the grants.

The bill includes an extra $1 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers to respond to the natural disasters that struck the Mississippi and Missouri river basins.

Proponents of the high-speed rail projects argued against transferring the funds. Instead, they said Congress should make the disaster money available through emergency funding that does not require an offset.

“We have dealt with natural disasters on a bipartisan basis, on an emergency basis, every single year,” said Rep. John Olver, D-Mass., who is serving his 11th term in Congress.

Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, argued that the rail funding is important for cities like Cleveland and Youngstown struggling to survive a 30-year decline in manufacturing.

“We may not have had a natural disaster but over the last 30 years we have had an economic disaster,” Ryan said. “I’m rising here to say that high-speed rail can be a force multiplier in our economic improvement – in our community and across the country.”

The House is expected to complete debate on the bill on Friday.

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