WASHINGTON, DC - Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today celebrated passage in the House of Representatives of the Water Resources and Development Act (WRDA).

"The Water resources bill that passed in the House includes a host of priorities I sought to directly study and combat flooding occurring throughout Northern New Jersey," said Congressman Pascrell. "These new provisions, once signed into law, will take an aggressive, forward-looking approach to some water challenges bedeviling our region. While I regret missing this vote, my office remains 100 percent committed to providing needed flood relief to Garden Staters."

WRDA authorizes the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to support projects to improve the nation's ports and harbors, inland waterway navigation, flood and storm protection, and other water resources and infrastructure. Pascrell advocated for these requests in testimony before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee earlier this year.

The Pascrell-sought priorities in today's legislation include:

Great Falls Raceway flood risk management and hydropower study (Paterson, NJ): Within Paterson Great Falls National Historic Park there is the historic raceway system which once diverted water from the Passaic River into a series of channels that ran throughout the city, bringing waterpower to the old industrial mills. The bill authorizes a study to examine how to make the system functional again by assessing the impact of sedimentation removal and the upstream flooding conditions to the hydroelectric plant.

Expediting Parts of New York-New Jersey Harbor (NYNJHATS) project: The New York-New Jersey Harbor region remains at serious risk of severe storm damage. In response, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is undertaking a massive costal risk management study to determine the feasibility of constructing environmentally acceptable and economically justified projects that will manage coastal storm risk while supporting the study area's economic and community resilience. The provision requested by Pascrell, in coordination with Congressmen Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06) and Rob Menendez (NJ-08), allows and encourages the Corps to identify projects within the larger the study that can be expedited for completion.

The House passed bill also authorizes flood risk management feasibility studies at the Passaic River, Berry's Creek (Hasbrouck Heights, NJ), Fleischer's Brook (Garfield, NJ), and Wolf's Creek (Ridgefield, NJ). The studies would help enhance flood mitigation and reduce flood risks, improve river navigation, protect communities and infrastructure, and revitalize spaces while strengthening environmental sustainability.