President Bush has signed legislation that would increase authorized funds for dam safety programs. The bill, signed into law on Dec. 2, provides a four-year extension for the National Dam Safety Program, which was created in 1996 and is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
The measure, titled the National Dam Safety and Security Act, authorizes $6 million a year for safety grants for state agencies, up from $4 million in fiscal 2002. States are responsible for overseeing 95% of the 78,000 dams in the U.S. Rep. Bill Shuster (R-Pa.), who introduced the House version of the bill, says about 10,000 dams are classified as potentially high-hazard.