The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Infrastructure (Executive Calendar)” mentioning the U.S. Dept of Agriculture was published in the Senate section on pages S4850-S4851 on July 13.
The Department is primarily focused on food nutrition, with assistance programs making up 80 percent of its budget. Downsizing the Federal Government, a project aimed at lowering taxes and boosting federal efficiency, said the Department implements too many regulations and restrictions and impedes the economy.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Infrastructure
Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, every State of the Nation has many infrastructure needs. In Iowa, we rely on our roads, bridges, air, and freight to move our goods and people throughout Iowa, throughout the United States, and eventually throughout the world. I am encouraged that a bipartisan framework has been agreed to for moving forward on an infrastructure bill. I will be interested in seeing more details about the policy and the way to pay for the bill as the bill proceeds forward.
Today, I would like to discuss one aspect of infrastructure, and that is our inland waterways. For Iowa, that is the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. For other States, it is a lot of other important rivers.
I ask my colleagues to take this important mode of transportation into account as they work on legislation. I have also sent this request in a letter to both the Senate Environment and Public Works as well as the Appropriations Committees.
The inland and intercostal waterways and our ports are vital to the United States and serve 41 States throughout our Nation. Shippers and consumers depend on the ability to move around 630 million tons of cargo each year, valued at about $232 billion on these waterways. In turn, the inland waterways system supports well over half a million jobs.
Now, I am going to go into some of the information that is on the chart here.
Our Nation's inland waterways system also provides a safe, cost-
effective, fuel-efficient, and environmentally friendly way to move our bulk products. This translates into more than $12 billion annually in transportation savings to the American economy.
Furthermore--and when I say ``furthermore,'' this point is important for the environment--1 gallon of fuel oil allows 1 ton of cargo to be shipped 647 miles by barge as compared to 477 miles by rail and only 145 miles by truck.
In addition, the inland waterway transport generates far fewer emissions of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and nitrous oxide than rail or truck per million tons of miles does.
As for safety, there are 21--let's say 22 rail fatalities compared to 79 truck fatalities for every 1 fatality on the waterways system that I am addressing.
By moving goods on inland waterways, we are helping to relieve congestion on the roadways and adding to the Nation's economic prosperity. Moving goods on inland waterways is the most efficient transportation mode. A typical inland barge has a capacity 15 times greater than 1 railcar and 60 times greater than 1 semi-trailer truck. One 15-barge tow can move the equivalent of 216 railcars pulled by 6 locomotives or 1,050 semi-trailer trucks, just as a comparison of the efficiency of this mode of transportation. If the cargo transported on the inland waterways each year had to be moved by another mode, it would take an additional 16 percent more tonnage on the railroad system and 49 million truck trips annually to carry the same load.
U.S. trade policy and its effects on exports, and in particular agricultural exports, have a major impact on the U.S. water transportation system.
The United States is the world's largest agricultural exporting country. U.S. agriculture exports in 2018--the last year we have figures for--generated more than $300 billion in economic output and directly supported more than 1 million jobs.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, about one out of every three acres farmed in our country are planted for export. Agricultural exports account for about a quarter of farm cash receipts, in which 73 percent of these exports and 65 percent of imports were carried on U.S. waterways. American farmers need foreign markets to sell commodities and value-added agricultural products.
Compared to the overall economy, U.S. agriculture is twice as reliant on overseas markets. Consumers in developing countries around the world choose different foods to eat as their incomes rise. As a result, then, there are emerging opportunities for exporting more meat, dairy products, and farm commodities. U.S. exporters need to be able to take advantage of those opportunities with only 96 percent of the world's consumers living outside the United States. Obviously, for the 4 percent of the people who live in the United States, if you want to market, you are going to spend a lot of time marketing to that 96 percent who live outside our country.
As the largest exporter of agricultural products in the world, the United States delivers high-quality, reliable products to consumers around the globe. Now, here at home, these exports are essential to profitability in agriculture, and the economic activity they generate obviously ripples through the domestic economy.
We need to make sure that our current inland waterway infrastructure is maintained in good condition. Congress has implemented policy changes that provide more funding for the Inland Waterways Trust Fund and adjusted cost shares of the trust fund to more efficiently fund and complete the construction projects. I ask for robust funding to support the use of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund for construction. This is necessary to ensure that the inland waterways modernization, replacement, and rehabilitation construction projects are funded at the level supportable by the Inland Waterways Trust Fund.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works program currently faces a large unmet need in its operations and maintenance account. I have been encouraged that in the last several years, Congress has provided additional funding to help address these backlogs. I request as much funding as possible be provided for these operation and maintenance activities.
The investigations account is also crucial for the inland waterways system. There are currently 15 modernization projects that are waiting to begin construction. It is critically important to complete design of these projects so they can begin construction when the Inland Waterways Trust Fund dollars become available. Failure to have design completed will delay project delivery, ultimately leading to increased total cost of the projects, as well as adding additional time to schedule project completion. I ask that the investigations account be funded at a level to support these projects, given current budgetary constraints.
On the Upper Mississippi River, multiple locks are well beyond their 50-year design life and cannot accommodate more tows, as we have to have the barges break up their tows to get them through smaller locks. So having to decouple the barges significantly slows down traffic on the river and increases costs and emissions harmful, then, to the environment.
I worked with my Upper Mississippi River colleagues here in the Senate and a large, broad stakeholder coalition to get initial authorization for this lock and dam modernization, the Navigation and Ecosystem Restoration Program, signed into law. We have also continued to work on receiving preconstruction engineering design and funding that is provided for in the Navigation and Ecosystem Restoration Program. It is important for that program to receive new start funding so construction on these improvements can start taking place.
Lock and Dam 25, which is a key feature of the navigation and ecosystem program, has received a significant portion of the $72.5 million appropriated for the navigation and ecosystem program thus far and is ready to move to construction. That program is a key priority for me and my colleagues, the State of Iowa, the region, and everybody up and down the Mississippi River, and, eventually, the world benefits from that increased efficiency.
We need all modes of transportation to help deliver our inputs, our goods, and commodities both domestically and internationally. I want to see robust navigation on the Mississippi River and other inland waterways flourish.
I look forward to continuing to work with my congressional colleagues and the administration on these important issues as appropriations and infrastructure legislation is prepared and discussed.
I have one other short comment I would like to make on another subject. It will take me about 2 or 3 minutes.
