[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 14, 2012)]
[Senate]
[Pages S609-S610]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SURFACE TRANSPORTATION ACT

  Mr. ISAKSON. Mr. President, amendment No. 1574 modifying the 
Congressional authorization for the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, 
SHEP, is clearly supported in the Constitution. Article I of the 
Constitution grants Congress the power to authorize and appropriate 
funds and Article I, Section 8, specifically grants Congress the power 
``To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several 
States, and with Indian Tribes.'' The power of Congress to fund the 
Savannah Harbor Expansion Project is unquestionably granted by the 
Commerce Clause of the Constitution. The Supreme Court has also 
expressly stated that ``Commerce with foreign nations means commerce 
between citizens of the United States and citizens or subjects of 
foreign governments. It means trade, and it means intercourse. It means 
commercial intercourse between nations, and parts of nations, in all 
its branches. It includes navigation, as the principal means by which 
foreign intercourse is affected.''
  The power to regulate, authorize, and appropriate funding for the 
ports comes from the authority to regulate navigation, arising from the 
Commerce Clause. The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project, and by 
extension all harbor deepening projects, involves the general welfare 
of the United States. The Port of Savannah is a turnstile for cargo 
that impacts the United States as a whole. Congress is permitted to 
contribute to the project because it would improve the ability of the 
United States to receive larger ships entering through the Panama 
Canal. The Project will make national trade more competitive, while 
greatly impacting the State and the region. Trades, and its relations 
(ports), are fundamental extensions of the congressional power to 
regulate commerce. The Savannah Harbor Expansion Project is a 
permissible exercise of Congress's authority to regulate commerce and 
contributes to the general welfare of the United States. The 
constitutional ability of Congress to provide funding for the program 
is unquestionable.
  The Port of Savannah is the second largest container port on the East

[[Page S610]]

Coast and the fourth largest in the country. The Georgia Department of 
Economic Development recently announced that Georgia exported more than 
$28.7 billion in goods last year, a 20.8 percent increase from 2009 and 
our imports experienced a 27 percent increase last year compared to 
2009. That's well over the overall national increase of 22.6 percent. 
Exports accounted for more than 54 percent of the 2.8 million 
containers Georgia Ports moved last year. Savannah handles more than 17 
percent of all container cargo on the East Coast and is an essential 
element for the creation of new jobs, and the preservation of existing 
jobs, in America. The Panama Canal Authority has undertaken a 7 year 
$5.25 billion project to widen the canal to double its capacity by 
allowing larger ships to transit it. After this expansion, the Panama 
Canal will be able to handle vessels of cargo capacity up to 13,000 
twenty-foot equivalent units or TEUs, which is the measure of cargo 
capacity often used to describe the capacity of a container ship. As a 
result of the canal's expansion and widening, shipping vessels are 
modernizing their fleet and purchasing a much larger class of vessel. 
These ``Post Panamax'' and ``New Panamax'' fleets will be comprised of 
vessels much larger than anything on the ocean today.
  In order to accommodate these vessels, improvements must be made to 
our Nation's existing infrastructure. The Georgia Ports Authority and 
the State of Georgia are undertaking a project to deepen the port's 
channel from 42 feet to 48 feet in order to accommodate this larger 
class of vessels. Doing so will protect existing jobs at the port while 
also creating new jobs as these larger vessels call in the Port of 
Savannah. It is critically important that we expand not only Savannah 
Harbor but all harbors to ensure they continue to act as gateways for 
business to not only Georgia and the Southeast United States, but the 
entire Nation.

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