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Water Resources Development Act of 2005

Date: July 14, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Transportation Infrastructure


WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - July 14, 2005)

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(Mr. SHIMKUS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. SHIMKUS. Mr. Chairman, I think a picture takes the place of a thousand words. This is what we get a chance to do with modernizing our lock and dams. We take one tow of 15 barges and we displace 870 tractor-trailer rigs on our Nation's highways. What this does is use the best means of transportation to get goods like coal, rock quarry goods, corn, and soybeans from New Orleans up to Chicago, or from Chicago down to New Orleans.

Now, if you want to take that same load up there now without the locks and dams, one load takes 870 tractor-trailer trucks. That is 870 trucks that are using diesel fuel. That is 870 trucks that are clogging our highways and our roads and our bridges. That is 870 trucks actually destroying or hurting the roadways that we spend a lot of money to build.

So there are a lot of important reasons why the corrections here in this bill are so critical. If we want an environmentally sound policy, we need to support this bill.

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