[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1012 Introduced in House (IH)]







110th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1012

   Honoring the historical significance of and reaffirming continued 
 Congressional support for commercial navigation on the Missouri River.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 3, 2008

   Mr. Hulshof (for himself, Mr. Skelton, Mr. Graves, Mr. Akin, Mr. 
   Carnahan, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Clay, and Mrs. Emerson) submitted the 
     following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on 
                   Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Honoring the historical significance of and reaffirming continued 
 Congressional support for commercial navigation on the Missouri River.

Whereas the Missouri River encompasses 529,350 square miles, drains one sixth of 
        the United States, and flows 2,341 miles from Three Forks, Montana, to 
        St. Louis, Missouri;
Whereas Native Americans used the Missouri River as a trade and transportation 
        corridor long before European explorers came to the region;
Whereas in 1673, Father Jacques Marquette and Louis Joliet were the first 
        Europeans to see the Missouri River during an expedition down the 
        Mississippi River;
Whereas French Colonists used the Missouri River as early as 1723 to connect the 
        ends of the New France Empire which stretched from New Orleans to 
        Montreal;
Whereas the Mackay and Evans Expedition of 1795 navigated the Missouri River in 
        search for a route to the Pacific and created the first detailed maps of 
        the river;
Whereas in 1804 President Thomas Jefferson sent Lewis and Clark to find a route 
        to the Pacific by navigating the Missouri River;
Whereas navigation on the Missouri River led to settlement and development of 
        the Dakotas and Montana;
Whereas the Rivers and Harbors Acts of 1912, 1917, 1925, 1927, 1930, and 1935 
        each affirmed navigation on the Missouri River to be the goal of the 
        stakeholders, occupants, the basin's elected officials, and the Federal 
        Government;
Whereas the 1934 ``308 Report'' on the Missouri River, by Captain Theodore 
        Wyman, Jr., identified numerous navigation projects that could be 
        completed;
Whereas after severe spring flooding in 1934 the House Committee on Flood 
        Control approved a resolution on May 13, 1934, which directed the U.S. 
        Army Corps of Engineers to prepare an additional survey of the Missouri 
        River;
Whereas in October of 1944, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of 
        Reclamation agreed to a plan for the Missouri River written by Corps 
        General Lewis A. Pick and Bureau of Reclamation Director W. Glenn Sloan;
Whereas the ``Pick-Sloan Plan'' provided direction to the Flood Control Act of 
        1944, the Rivers and Harbors Act of 1945, and the future of the Missouri 
        River;
Whereas the Flood Control Act of 1944 turned the Missouri River basin into the 
        largest reservoir system in North America and authorized 8 purposes for 
        this system, including commercial navigation;
Whereas the river has carried up to 6,600,000,000 pounds of commercial cargo in 
        a single year;
Whereas in 2000 navigation on the Missouri river moved 7,100,000 bushels of corn 
        and 5,100,000 bushels of soybeans;
Whereas the June 4, 2003, August 16, 2005, and February 8, 2008, decisions of 
        the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held that 
        navigation was a dominant function of the Flood Control Act of 1944;
Whereas in the 2003 decision the Court went so far as to say, ``The dominant 
        functions of the Flood Control Act were to avoid flooding and to 
        maintain downstream navigation''; and
Whereas as our Nation's rail and highway systems are increasingly congested, 
        barges on the Missouri River will become an even more attractive 
        shipping option: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the United States House of Representatives--
            (1) acknowledges that commercial navigation on the Missouri 
        River helped provide for the exploration, expansion, and 
        economic prosperity of the United States; and
            (2) continues supporting commercial navigation on the 
        Missouri River in the future.
                                 <all>