Source: United States Senator for North Dakota John Hoeven
Assistant Secretary Plays a Vital Role in Setting Army Corps Budget & Priorities, Will Help Provide Certainty to Flood Protection Efforts in North Dakota and Minnesota
WASHINGTON – Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) this week secured Senate approval of Michael Connor as Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, the top civilian post overseeing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Both Hoeven and Klobuchar have been urging their colleagues to move this nomination forward and took to the Senate floor earlier this week to push for his confirmation.
As a result, the Senate voted today to give final approval to Connor, providing greater certainty to the Corps and the projects it is constructing across the country, including permanent flood protection projects in the Red River Valley and the region surrounding Minot, North Dakota.
“The Assistant Secretary plays a vital role in formulating the Army Corps’ budget, setting its policies and priorities and ensuring an incredible array of projects are managed and executed across the nation,” said Senator Hoeven, a member of the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Committee. “Every state has interactions with the Corps. In North Dakota, we have Corps flood protection projects in regions like Minot, where we had 11,000 residents displaced and 4,000 homes and buildings inundated. Senator Klobuchar and I are also working together to advance comprehensive flood protection for the entire Red River Valley, where we are using an innovative public-private partnership approach to deliver the project more quickly and at a lower cost to taxpayers. It takes a lot of work and creativity to move these efforts forward. That’s why we’ve worked to get the Assistant Secretary in place to help us do that, and I thank Senator Klobuchar for her continued partnership on this important priority.”
“The Army Corps of Engineers’ Civil Works program plays a critical role in supporting navigation on our inland waterways and coastal ports, maintaining reservoirs that supply water to communities, and providing flood protection and risk management. This is especially important in the Fargo-Moorhead region of North Dakota and Minnesota,” said Senator Klobuchar. “That is why Senator Hoeven and I worked to secure support for Michael Connor, a dedicated and capable leader, as the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works. Now that he has been confirmed, I look forward to working with him to build sustainable water infrastructure nationwide.”
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