[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 94 (Thursday, June 7, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S3370]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

  SA 2537. Ms. STABENOW (for herself, Mr. Peters, Ms. Baldwin, Ms. 
Duckworth, Mr. Donnelly, Mr. Young, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Durbin) 
submitted an amendment intended to be proposed to amendment SA 2282 
submitted by Mr. Inhofe (for himself and Mr. McCain) and intended to be 
proposed to the bill H.R. 5515, to authorize appropriations for fiscal 
year 2019 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for 
military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of 
Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, 
and for other purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as 
follows:

       At the end of subtitle F of title X, add the following:

     SEC. 10__. SENSE OF CONGRESS RELATING TO SOO LOCKS, SAULT 
                   SAINTE MARIE, MICHIGAN.

       It is the sense of Congress that--
       (1) the Soo Locks in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, are of 
     critical importance to the national security of the United 
     States;
       (2) the Soo Locks are the only waterway connection from 
     Lake Superior to the Lower Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence 
     Seaway;
       (3) only the Poe Lock is of sufficient size to allow for 
     the passage of the largest cargo vessels that transport well 
     over 90 percent of all iron ore mined in the United States, 
     and this lock is nearing the end of its 50-year useful 
     lifespan;
       (4) a report issued by the Office of Cyber and 
     Infrastructure Analysis of the Department of Homeland 
     Security concluded that an unscheduled 6-month outage of the 
     Poe Lock would cause--
       (A) a dramatic increase in national and regional 
     unemployment; and
       (B) 75 percent of Great Lakes steel production, and nearly 
     all North American appliance, automobile, railcar, and 
     construction, farm, and mining equipment production to cease;
       (5) the Corps of Engineers is reevaluating a past economic 
     evaluation report to update the benefit-to-cost ratio for 
     building a new lock at the Soo Locks; and
       (6) the Secretary of the Army and all relevant Federal 
     agencies should--
       (A) expedite the completion of the report described in 
     paragraph (5) and ensure the analysis adequately reflects the 
     critical importance of the Soo Locks infrastructure to the 
     national security and economy of the United States; and
       (B) expedite all other necessary reviews, analysis, and 
     approvals needed to speed the required upgrades at the Soo 
     Locks.
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