Weekly News Summary For November 12–18, 2007:
The House and Senate, ignoring President Bush’s criticism of the Water Resources Development Act of 2007 as “excessive,” joined in the first override of the president’s veto, allowing the measure to become law without his signature.
The Senate took up the bill (H.R. 1495) at 10:45 a.m. November 8 and after several procedural quorum calls and six speeches in support of the measure completed the voting about 90 minutes later. The final tally was 79-13 in favor of overriding the veto, well over the two-thirds needed for passage. Two days earlier, the House recorded the first override of a Bush veto by a vote of 361 to 54, also considerably more than the two-thirds required.
The first senator speaking in favor of overriding the veto, said to be only the 107th override in the history of the country, was Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.), minority whip, who said that projects authorized by the bill “should go forward.” Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) said the bill was “crucial for the entire country” and that it was a “momentous step toward the recovery of New Orleans.”
Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) was one of several senators emphasizing that the measure was not a spending bill. “Authorization does not mean that a project would ever get funded,” Domenici said. The president, apparently looking on the bill as a spending measure, “made a mistake,” the senator said. “It is not a spending bill.” The president, he said, will have an opportunity to veto funding for a project when it comes through in an appropriations bill….
The Friday after Halloween brought a number of industry leaders to Quincy, Ill. for the 56th meeting of the Inland Waterways Users Board. And although the faux frights of the holiday were just a memory, there was plenty to be scared about in some of the numbers presented at the meeting.
The apprehension began with remarks by John Woodley, assistant secretary of the Army-civil works, who repeated the Bush administration’s threat to veto the Water Resources Development Act.
The bill has a number of things the administration has asked for, Woodley said, but “Unfortunately, it also contains many things that are not appropriate or wise. There are many provisions that will be very expensive provisions that will not be to the benefit of water resource development or good public policy. So the president is very seriously considering that he will return the bill to the Congress without his approval, and then the Congress can decide what they want to do about that. I remain hopeful that the good provisions will become law; if the others also become law, we will of course execute them.”
(By the time the Users Board meeting was wrapping up, several industry officials reported that they had received e-mail notification that President Bush had, in fact, vetoed the bill. More on WRDA can be found elsewhere in this issue of the WJ.)
Royce Wilken, president of American River Transportation Company and newly appointed chairman of the Users Board, responded that the industry was still strongly in favor of the authorization bill, calling it “one of the fundamental, foundational building blocks of our infrastructure.” He called on the industry, government and other stakeholders to “think outside the box” and collaborate on ways to ensure that vital infrastructure projects are constructed in a timely manner….
U.S. Barge, a new shipyard located in Portland, Ore., christened its first barge, the Ho’omaka Hou, on October 16. The 340- x 90- x 21-foot ocean-going barge is headed for Hawaii where the owner, Young Brothers, Ltd., will use it for inter-island cargo transport.
“This is the first of four barges to be delivered to us in the next year and a half,” said Glenn Hong, Young Brothers, Ltd president and chief executive officer. “This investment will help us to meet our customers’ needs and the future growth in inter-island cargo.”
Ho’omaka Hou means “new beginning” in Hawaiian — a name with special meaning as U.S. Barge celebrates its first completed barge. The ceremony was full of Hawaiian tradition as the barge was called in to the berth and then blessed by an official kahu and his students. Angela Scalzo, wife of Steve Scalzo, chief operating officer of marine resources group, christened the barge. A large crowd from the Portland area attended to celebrate….
The Corps of Engineers hoped to have the Port Allen Alternate Route re-opened by the evening of November 8, Victor Landry told The Waterways Journal on November 7.
The route was closed to allow a salvage operation by Bisso Marine to raise a crane that sank when it struck a highway bridge crossing Berwick Bay.
The Port Allen Route was closed October 29 to allow the salvage operation. Tows traveling southbound on the Mississippi River and westbound on the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway use the Port Allen Route to bypass New Orleans. Vessels enter from the Mississippi River through the Port Allen Lock below Baton Rouge and connect with the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway at Morgan City….
The Coast Guard is seeking applications for membership on the Lower Mississippi River Waterway Safety Advisory Committee. The committee advises and makes recommendations to the Coast Guard on navigation safety on the Lower Mississippi River.
Applications should be received by December 14.
The committee is a federal advisory committee authorized by Public Law 92-463 to provide “local expertise on communication, surveillance, traffic control, anchorages, aids to navigation and other topics relating to navigational safety on the Lower Mississippi River to the Coast Guard.”
It meets at least four times a year in the New Orleans area, and may also meet for extraordinary purposes, the announcement said. Subcommittees and working groups may meet to consider specific problems as required.
Twenty-four positions expire or become vacant on May 30, 2008. To be eligible, a nominee should “have expertise in navigation safety, waterways management, vessel traffic service and management, shipboard operations or facility operations.”…
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