[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 63 (Tuesday, May 4, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E850]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


CONSENT OF CONGRESS TO THE CHICKASAW TRAIL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMPACT

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                             HON. ED BRYANT

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                          Tuesday, May 4, 1999

  Mr. BRYANT. Mr. Speaker, as we move into the 21st Century, there is a 
need in our rural communities to find new revenue sources to keep up 
with the constant changes of our high-tech and booming business 
community.
  This scenario rings true in many areas of rural Tennessee. Several of 
the counties within the seventh-district are doing what they can to 
attract businesses to their communities to provide jobs and revenue to 
help their counties, cities, and towns grow in the new century.
  That is what we have in front of us today. The Chickasaw Trail 
Economic Development Compact gives Congressional consent to an 
interstate compact between Tennessee and Mississippi that will promote 
interstate cooperation and economic development in an area straddling 
Fayette County, Tennessee and Marshall County, Mississippi.
  Under the bill, the Chickasaw Compact would conduct a study to 
determine the feasibility of establishing an industrial park in this 
area. Should that study turn out to be favorable, the states would then 
negotiate a new compact implementing the details needed to establish a 
4,000 to 5,000 acre industrial park. This location is adjacent to metro 
Memphis, which is shot of available land for future industrial growth, 
and it is hoped that the development would attract sophisticated high 
technology industries to the area.
  The compact has already established a board of directors representing 
the two states, the two counties and the private sector. Financial 
support from local, state and federal sources have allowed the project 
to proceed with an initial feasibility study.

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