(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Senator Joni Ernst says a bill she is working on in the Ag Committee would address some of the concerns with the recent flooding in Texas, and past floods in Iowa. “It’s the restoring America’s Flood Plains Act, and this will help communities proactively reduce the impacts of flooding using tools that already exist.” Ernst says. Ernst says it brings everyone together to work on the problem.

“It ensures farm owners or farmers, land owners and the U-S-D-A can all work together to restore and maintain floodplain easements in the Emergency Watershed Protection Program. And that’s at no additional cost to taxpayers. The U-S-D-A would team up with the landowners in restoration activities like removing levees and replanting native species that are critical for reducing the flood risk and improving natural habitat.

“It’s not a mandatory program, it’s all voluntary, but through this bill, we can mitigate flood risk, you know, improve water quality, which is important to Iowans and protect our valuable land,” Ernst says. Ernst says Democrat Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado is co-sponsoring the bill with her.