Water Resources Reform and Development Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. FLEISCHMANN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of this water resources bill, and I commend the chairman of the full committee, the ranking member, and the entire Transportation Committee for this bill.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a bill that is a step in the right direction. I represent Chattanooga, Tennessee. We have all heard of the Chattanooga Choo Choo, but there is another place called the Chickamauga Lock in Chattanooga. This bill basically does something that I have been working on so hard since I have been in Congress. It is a step in the right direction to finally work towards funding the Chickamauga Lock.

What it does, basically, is it reforms the Inland Waterways Trust Fund. This is a trust fund right now that is fundamentally broken. Why? Because what it does is it sends all of the money to one particular lock project and starves out all of the other lock projects in the system, including Chickamauga. This bill is a great step in the right direction because it basically works to fund it. In addition to that, it is a good bill because it restores, unlike the Senate bill, the power to the Congress, in determining the funding of these locks.

Let me end by saying this. Our waterways transportation fund is critically important to this Nation, not as Democrats and Republicans, but as Americans. I know in my home city of Chattanooga, this lock, which is stopped in construction, needs to have construction started again. These are American jobs. These are American exports. These are American goods. This is a bill that is a step in the right direction for a great America.

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