On March 28th, U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein, and Representatives Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) and Jimmy Panetta (D-Monterey) sent a letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) urging them to accelerate construction of the federally authorized project to repair the levee and to provide emergency repairs and response for the towns of Pajaro (Monterey County) and Watsonville (Santa Cruz County). The towns suffered significant flooding after the levee experienced a serious failure on March 11th. In their letter, the lawmakers request that the Corps provide emergency funds for rehabilitation to rebuild the levees to meet higher performance standards, expedite the administrative process to make the $149 million in construction funding more immediately available, and provide additional federal construction funds to fund this project to completion and to allow for a “design-build.”