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At the end of July, U.S. Representative for Oklahoma's Kevin Hern sponsored his first bill as a Member of Congress.

H.R. 3944 amends the Water Resources Reform and Development Act, addressing the communications shortfalls Oklahomans experienced during the flooding this past May. This spring, Oklahoma’s First District was devastated by flooding. Congressman Hern is introducing this legislation to add another tool to the Army Corp’s belt.

This reform will grant the Army Corps of Engineers the ability to better communicate impending disasters with our community and potentially give our constituents more time to prepare for flooding in the future. While natural disasters cannot be stopped, Rep. Hern said they can always be more prepared, and this bill will help them achieve that.

This bill requires the Army Corps of Engineers to send emergency communications earlier, so constituents are better protected against disaster. Other things Rep. Hern mentioned include:

• Currently, the U.S. Code directs the Army Corps of Engineers to only send out emergency communications when “precipitation or runoff exceeds those calculations considered as the lowest risk to life and property.”

• This bill would adjust this requirement so that the Army Corps of Engineers would also send this emergency communication when the National Weather Service forecasts the possibility of precipitation or runoff exceeding calculations considered the lowest risk to life and property.

• This would better help local and state governments to make more informed plans ahead of time to prepare constituents, and to help them to better preempt any dangers caused by water releases.