[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 130 (Friday, September 25, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11004-S11005]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, I was taken aback this morning after 
reading statements made by Vice President Gore that appeared in an 
article detailing the decision made by the Energy and Water 
Appropriations conference committee to eliminate Federal funding for 
the Tennessee Valley Administration's non-power programs. Funding for 
these TVA programs has been going on since TVA's inception. It has been 
pared down very much, year after year after year, until it has reached 
an amount that really can fund only the maintenance of the waterway, 
the dams, the flow of water, and reservoirs contained therein.
  The conference committee has determined and has decided that funding 
for these programs will be eliminated. I am extremely disappointed in 
that. I want to say a few things about this decision and how it came 
about, but first I want to comment on what the Vice President said in 
today's AP story. According to published accounts, Vice President Gore 
said he was deeply disappointed in these program reductions. Then he 
said, ``The conference committee's action in zeroing out TVA is 
completely misguided, unjustified, unfair, and it seriously undermines 
TVA's important role in enhancing the Tennessee Valley.''
  That is what the Vice President said, ``* * * completely misguided, 
unjustified, unfair, and it seriously undermines TVA's important role 
in * * * the Tennessee Valley.''
  I agree that the decision to eliminate this funding is unfair because 
for the first time the ratepayer, the Tennessee Valley power payers, 
will be asked to keep up a waterway, even though every other waterway 
in America is kept up by taxpayers, through either the Corps of 
Engineers or other agencies. This is a major change and I think it was 
an unwise decision.
  Mr. President, just 2 years ago this administration took action that 
directly led to this result. There has been debate for some time as to 
whether or not we ought to fund the Tennessee Valley Authority in this 
way. Two years ago this President and this Vice President, working 
through the Office of Management and Budget, which is a part of this 
administration, submitted a budget to this Congress that zeroed out 
nonpower funding for the Tennessee Valley Authority. The last time I 
checked, the Vice President was a part of this administration.
  Now, those of us who opposed the Administration's decision are in 
trouble. There was a debate about reducing TVA's funding. People took 
different sides on it. The chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority 
is a personal friend of the Vice President. The Vice President helped 
the current TVA chairman get his appointment and the Vice President 
consults with him regularly. Initially, the TVA chairman said he 
thought the Administration's funding reductions were a good idea and he 
supported the Clinton Administration's position. We asked him to 
reconsider. Chairman Crowell held hearings and studied the issue and 
came back and said he didn't think the Administration's position was a 
good idea after all; he changed his mind.
  What I am saying, Mr. President, is that we are ``living in spin'' in 
this city. It offends me. It is a matter of basic integrity. I am just 
a former prosecutor from Alabama. I haven't been in this body 2 years. 
Maybe you are supposed to become immune to these things. I am not 
immune to it yet. When the Vice President says, ``It is completely 
misguided, unjustified, unfair,'' and yet 2 years ago he submitted a 
budget to do the very thing he is now criticizing, it strikes me as 
somewhat unusual and unfair and unjustified for him to say that.
  The reason this funding failed and the reason the conference 
committee succeeded over my objection and over the objection of 
Senators Thompson, Frist, Shelby and others involved in the Tennessee 
Valley, was because of the impetus given to this effort by this 
administration when, along with their chairman of TVA, they supported 
proposed funding reductions 2 years ago.

[[Page S11005]]

 Once the Administration supported it and said it was a good idea--and 
were joined in this belief by the TVA leadership itself--it was almost 
impossible to change the decisionmaking momentum. I am disappointed. I 
remember that a little over a year ago we held a TVA caucus meeting 
with the chairman of the Tennessee Valley Authority, Mr. Craven 
Crowell. During this meeting Mr. Crowell met with Members of the House 
of Representatives and with Senators who live in the area and who care 
about the Tennessee Valley. This meeting gave us the opportunity to 
come together and share information and discuss issues of importance 
regarding how to make TVA work better. I asked if he had discussed with 
the President of the United States, President Clinton, the zeroing out 
of funding for TVA's nonpower resources, and Mr. Crowell said yes. I 
said, ``Have you talked with the Office of Management and Budget?'' and 
Mr. Crowell replied, ``Yes, I spend a lot of time with them.'' Then I 
asked, knowing that the Vice President is from Tennessee and had 
previously been involved in TVA, ``Did you talk with the Vice President 
about it,'' and Mr. Crowell said the Vice President ``knew about it.''
  So, now we have it. More spin in the Capitol. The President and Vice 
President personally engaged in recommending the zeroing out of this 
budget item 2 years ago and now they are coming forward to attack those 
who carried out what they recommended. In fact, the budget the 
President submitted has zero dollars for nonpower in the Tennessee 
Valley.
  Whatever happens with this issue and what we will do about it, I 
don't know. I continue to adhere to the belief that it is unfair to ask 
the people who live there to fund the waterway maintenance and upkeep--
that is what we are talking about--when no other place in the country 
does it that way. The taxpayers, through the Corps of Engineers or 
other agencies, do that throughout the country.
  It shocks my conscience and doesn't enhance my respect for the 
credibility, integrity, and the honesty of the Vice President to have 
him make the kind of comments I quoted earlier. In truth, had the 
President and Vice President not supported reducing this funding 2 
years ago, it would not be passing now. I think most people who keep up 
with the details of this situation know what I am saying is true.

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