WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, R-Miss., today attended a hearing of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to raise concerns with a recent U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) decision to deny a request to extend a Regional General Permit (RGP) for the Jackson County Airport. The permit had been in effect since 2005 and allowed for aviation-related development on a 300-acre site near the Trent Lott International Airport.

“This [permit] means economic development and jobs for the Americans who live in and around the area of Jackson County,” Wicker told Secretary R.D. James, who represented USACE at the hearing.

Wicker noted that the USACE Mobile District gave only two weeks’ notice that the permit would be allowed to expire.

“This caught our economic developers and job creators off guard and presents a crippling blow to economic possibilities on the site,” Wicker said.

In his questions to Secretary James, Wicker asked, “Will you look into this and see if you can help us get through this bureaucratic road block to creating jobs and economic development for Americans?”

“We’ll get to the bottom of it as soon as possible. I will report back to you on it,” James said.