In the News

The director of government relations with the Illinois Soybean Association says there needs to be Congressional action on the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA).

Andrew Larson says securing further lock and dam funding is vital for agriculture.

“60% of our soybeans in Illinois are exported every year.”  He says, “The vast majority of those leave on a barge and making sure that our lock and dam system on the Illinois and Mississippi rivers, which is in many cases over 100 years old, gets modernized and updated, is a top priority.”

$732 million in federal funding has already been awarded to the expansion of Lock & Dam 25 on the Mississippi River.

Larson tells Brownfield their membership wants to build on recent momentum.

“Having the Lock & Dam 25 project funded to completion by the federal government would really help to ensure that we can begin to talk about getting those other projects, La Grange and Peoria (on the Illinois River), slated for construction,” he says.

Larson says the bill needs to be passed by the end of September.

“Things are a little stalled,” he says. “There’s been some efforts to attach it to the National Defense Authorization Act, but we’re confident that there will be a WRDA package passed as part of at least some portion of legislation here before the end of the federal fiscal year.”

Larson says ISA recently put out a call to action asking their membership to contact Congressional representatives encouraging timely passage of WRDA.

Some version of WRDA has been passed every two years since 2014, the last one in 2022.