President Obama’s proposed cuts to the budget that maintains vital riverways and shipping lanes could lead to “catastrophic” failures, Sen. Lamar Alexander said Wednesday.
The river locks that make up the core fixture in U.S. commercial shipping “ought to be among our highest priorities in federal spending and support,” said the Tennessee Republican, who headed an energy and water development subcommittee hearing on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ proposed fiscal 2017 budget.
The Army Corps oversees most of the country’s river and lock systems. Its budget was slashed 23 percent from last year, to about $4.6 billion.
“Using locks is the only way for inland waterway shippers to move things like grain, steel, fertilizer and coal up and down rivers,” Alexander said. “To unexpectedly shut them down for periods of time would be catastophic for agriculture and other commodities that rely on them to get their goods to market.
“I think it is fair to ask, why would the president cut funding for the Corps of Engineers at a time when more investment is needed,” he said, adding that the 2017 budget request does not reflect the importance of maintaining the nation’s critical riverways.
Instead, the Corps says it is looking to rebalance its budget to do more to fight climate change and spur renewable energy development.
Alexander said the proposed cuts are significant. The House appropriations committee last week said the Corps’ focus should be on economic development, infrastructure maintenance and recreation, but underscored the major cuts to the budget that were made despite the need for maintaining the nation’s waterways, levees and related infrastructure.
Similar criticisms of the Corps’ budget also were raised in the House last week.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, R-Ky, said he was afraid the Army Corps “has almost lost sight of its role in economic development and its commitment to its recreation mission.”
Recreation and tourism are important to economic development, but the Army Corps has put up roadblocks instead of fast tracking development in struggling economies, he said.
“My hope is that we can set the right priorities in the budget in order to ensure the Corps is enabling the success of these communities and not holding them back,” he said.
