WASHINGTON – U.S. Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker, both R-Miss., today reiterated their opposition to a proposed lock usage fee sought by the Obama Administration to raise revenue for the Inland Waterways Trust Fund.

The Mississippi Senators are among a bipartisan group of 20 Senators who object to the proposed fee and who issued letters to the leadership of the Senate Finance Committee, as well as the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, asking them not to move forward with legislation to implement the lock usage fee.

“There is a clear recognition that the Inland Waterways Trust Fund cannot keep up with the demands placed on it.  The lock usage fee, which Congress has rejected in the past, is not a fair or efficient tool for fixing the financial problems facing the Trust Fund,” Cochran said.

 “I think the Congress should work to find a more suitable solution that will keep the Trust Fund solvent and enable the Army Corps of Engineers to address the backlog of improvement projects on our waterways,” Cochran continued.

“The Inland Waterways Trust Fund’s solvency must be addressed, but proposing a solution that has been rejected by Congress in the past is not the way to go,” Wicker said.  “Lockage fees represent a highly inequitable fix to this problem.  The lockage fee idea should be abandoned and Congress should be allowed to continue working toward a better solution.” 

In their correspondence, the lawmakers asked the committees to allow them to continue their work with the Army Corps of Engineers, Inland Waterways User Board and others to develop specific alternatives to address the pending Trust Fund shortfall and to improve the efficiency of Army Corps of Engineers projects on inland and intracoastal waterways.

The proposed lock usage fee would replace an existing diesel fuel tax (20-cents a gallon) as the primary revenue-generating mechanism for the Trust Fund.  These funds are used to meet the required 50 percent nonfederal cost-share requirement for constructing, replacing, expanding or rehabilitating Army Corps waterways projects.

In Mississippi, the Trust Fund has previously been used to support works on the Mississippi River system, including the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway.

“We do not believe that the Administration’s proposed lock usage fee is the appropriate revenue source,” states the letters signed by Cochran and Wicker.

“Simply put, we believe funding the Inland Waterways Trust Fund with that proposal is unfair and unbalanced.  It discriminates against the portions of the country that depend on large numbers of locks to move cargo, while giving a free pass to commercial vessels that operate in areas of the country without locks.  The Corps of Engineers does considerable work along portions of rivers without locks to maintain navigation.  To expect only those portions of the rivers with locks to pay for that construction is inappropriate,” the letter concludes.

Initiated by Senators Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) and Chris Bond (R-Mo.), the letters were signed by Cochran, Wicker and Senators Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Jim Bunning (R-Ky.), Roland Burris (D-Ill.), Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.), Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), David Vitter (D-La.), Bob Casey Jr. (D-Pa.), Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Mary Landrieu (D-La.), Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), Arlen Specter (D-Pa.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.).

Cochran is the ranking Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee and serves on the Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Subcommittee that funds the Army Corps of Engineers. 

The Senator is now a member of a conference committee that will reconcile differences between the House and Senate on the FY2010 Energy and Water Development Act (HR.3183/S.1436).

The Senate bill recommended $5.4 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers Civil Works program.  The Senate legislation also includes report language that prohibits the Army Corps from entering into any new continuing contacts for inland waterway projects until Congress adopts a plan to ensure the fiscal viability of the Inland Waterways Trust Fund.