[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 15755-15756]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                       SUPPORT THE FLAKE-BLUMEN-
AUER AMENDMENT TO ENSURE THAT THE UPPER MISSISSIPPI RIVER LOCK AND DAM 
                         EXPANSION IS JUSTIFIED

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House

[[Page 15756]]

for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, we heard earlier today that there is a 
need to have a massive investment in the lock system in the Mississippi 
River to avoid having product move up and down in trucks. That is not 
the issue.
  The problem that we are facing now is that more and more of the grain 
and other agricultural product are being shipped by truck and rail 
because it needs to get to locations not served by the Mississippi 
River system. This has been shown by the Congressional Research Service 
and the National Academy of Science.
  The bill that is coming before us for a vote next week would be the 
Nation's most expensive waterway project and would siphon off 10 to 15 
percent of all core construction funding for years, perhaps decades, to 
come, for an area where the barge traffic is actually going down.
  I strongly urge my colleagues to support the amendment that the 
gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Flake) and I are offering that would allow 
the project to go forward only if the minimum standards that make it 
economically viable are, in fact, met over the next 3 years.

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