[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 56 (Tuesday, April 23, 2013)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2863-S2864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            FISHING BARRIERS

  Mr. ALEXANDER. Mr. President, seeing no other Senator here, I would 
like to turn to another matter. In his biography of Thomas Jefferson, 
Jon Meacham writes that Jefferson liked to fish. Jefferson ``had a 
favorite spot,'' Meacham writes, ``below the old dam on the Rivanna 
River.'' Thomas Jefferson, if he were alive, would be pleased to know 
Americans followed his example. Americans like to fish, and in 
Tennessee we have nearly 900,000 Tennesseans who bought fishing 
licenses last year, and they like to fish below the dams just like 
President Jefferson liked to do because they know that is where the 
fishing is sometimes the best.
  That is why there is such an uproar in Tennessee and in Kentucky and 
from fishermen all over the country about the unreasonable obstinance 
of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in seeking to put up physical 
barriers to fishing below the 10 dams on the Cumberland River.
  The Corps of Engineers is an honorable institution. The flooding 
season is upon us, and we all remember the terrific job they did last 
year and the year before when we had such serious floods along the 
Mississippi. We are grateful to them for that. But for whatever reason, 
the Corps of Engineers is rejecting every reasonable proposal from the 
States of Tennessee and Kentucky to say let us work with you to ensure 
safety below the dams on the Cumberland River in a way that continues 
to allow fishing when it is safe and that allows us to attract the jobs 
into our area.
  Senator Corker, Senator McConnell, Senator Paul, Congressman 
Whitfield, Congressman Cooper, Congresswoman Blackburn--we have all 
introduced legislation we call the Freedom to Fish Act. I met with 
every general and colonel I could find. I even talked to the Secretary 
of the Army and said: What in the world are you doing here? On these 10 
dams ever since they have been built in the 1960s, people have been 
fishing there with their children and grandchildren. Some of the most 
ardent fisherman are retired Army Corps of Engineers people.

[[Page S2864]]

  They always come back and say: We have to ensure public safety. Of 
course they have to ensure public safety, but there are various ways to 
do that. They do not have to put up physical barriers across the dam. 
So they are on a path to take $2.6 million, during a time of sequester, 
that is needed for other projects to build these monstrosities across 
the river below these 10 dams.
  Up to now it has been mostly those of us in Congress who registered 
the complaints of the men and women who like to fish. I went to a rally 
at Old Hickory Lake about a month ago. There were a lot of people 
there. They were not of any particular party, I would say. They were 
tea party, environmentalist, outdoors men and women, retired Corps of 
Engineers people, a lot of grandparents--people were mad because they 
fished there with their grandchildren and wanted to keep doing it. Then 
I went up to Kentucky to Lake Barkley a week ago with Senator 
McConnell, Senator Paul, and Congressman Whitfield and found the same 
sort of thing there.

  The argument is that it is unsafe. Of course it is unsafe when the 
water is spilling through the dam. That is about 20 percent of the 
time. The rest of the time it is safe. Restricting fishing below the 
dams 100 percent of the time when it is only dangerous 20 percent of 
the time is like keeping the crossing gate down over the railroad track 
100 percent of the time. We could do that. I think we have nearly 
130,000 railroad crossings, but if we had a gate down on them all the 
time we could never go anywhere. People expect drivers to have enough 
sense to stay off the track when the train is coming. The track is not 
dangerous when the train is not coming and the water is not dangerous 
for fishing when it is not spilling through the dam.
  One reason we are outdoorsmen in this country--and the great American 
outdoors is a part of the American character and our ethic--is we want 
to go outside and evaluate the risk. We want to be on our own. We want 
to be able to make decisions. We don't want a government that is so all 
powerful and all knowing that it makes it risk free when we go into the 
great American outdoors.
  Now we have an additional voice that comes from the Democratic side 
of the aisle, and more important from the legal side. The Corps of 
Engineers, in talking with me, said: You know, we have legal liability. 
Here is an article that was in the Tennessean yesterday about the 
comments of Jerry Martin, the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of 
Tennessee, who retired last week. He was appointed by President Obama 
as a leading Democrat in the area. This is the U.S. attorney position 
that was first held by Andrew Jackson at one time. This is what the 
article said:

       Responding to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' proposal to 
     limit fishing on dams along the Cumberland River and its 
     tributaries in Kentucky, former U.S. Attorney Jerry Martin 
     said that the Corps' plan is not worth the effort.
       Martin, who just weeks ago would have been responsible with 
     carrying out the Corps' wishes, said the Tennessee Valley 
     Authority's siren system, which goes off when water is 
     released from the dams, is enough to ensure public safety.
       The Corps has proposed barriers along the river that would 
     limit fishing access, citing safety concerns. Detractors say 
     the move could cost millions of tourism dollars every year.

  ``These waters belong to the citizens,'' Martin, who was appointed by 
President Barack Obama in 2010, said in a prepared statement. ``In 
light of the tremendous protection from liability enjoyed by the Corps, 
I don't think it's reasonable for the Corps to ban everyone at all 
times from these public places.
  I am concluding my remarks because I see the Senator from Wyoming has 
arrived.
  Let's stop and think about this a minute. The Corps of Engineers now 
already has everybody in Tennessee of any political stripe saying: You 
are taking an unreasonable step. They have the wildlife agencies of 
Tennessee and Kentucky saying: We would like to work with you to help 
you do a better job of ensuring safety below the dams when the water is 
spilling through the dams, which is 20 percent of the time. We have the 
Tennessee Valley Authority with dams on the Tennessee River, which 
makes the Cumberland look like a stream, and the TVA allows fishing 
below the dams. It has sirens, it has signs, it has whistles. It 
assumes people are wise enough not to roll up just below the dam when 
the water is spilling through it. Just like we assume we are wise 
enough, if we put on a siren and put on the red lights, not to sit on 
the railroad tracks when a train is coming.
  Now the former lawyer who would have been responsible for defending 
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in a liability case says:

       These waters belong to the citizens. In light of the 
     tremendous protection from liability enjoyed by the Corps, I 
     do not believe it is reasonable for the Corps to ban everyone 
     at all times from these public places.

  I call on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to recognize the voices of 
the people of our country--all over the country--who fish below these 
dams and accept the offer of the two States, Kentucky and Tennessee, to 
work with the corps to develop a reasonable attitude, a reasonable way 
of ensuring public safety for fishing below the dams. That is our 
opinion. We will pass a law to make it happen if we have to, but given 
the statement, especially of the retired U.S. attorney, Jerry Martin, 
who would have been the corps's lawyer in defending lawsuits about 
this, the corps needs to change its mind, act reasonably, and spend 
that $2.6 million on some more needed project.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Schatz). The Senator from Wyoming.

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