Senate won't flood farmers to save wildlife

On September 7, by a vote of 45 to 52, the Senate rejected a measure that would have allowed the Army Corps of Engineers to increase the springtime flows of the Missouri River-a change that could flood farms and hinder barges while aiding recreation and wildlife.

The controversial measure, an amendment to the Energy and Water appropriations bill (HR 4733), would have removed a passage from the underlying bill preventing the corps from revising the Missouri River water control manual in a manner that would allow a change in river flow.

Debate on the amendment was mainly a battie between downstream Sen. Kit Bond (R.-Mo.), who serves on Senate Environment subcommittees handling wildlife and transportation, and upstream Sen. Tom Daschle (D.-S.D.), the minority leader who serves on the Agriculture Committee's subcommittee dealing with conservation. Bond authored the bill's provision that Daschle's amendment attempted to remove.

Daschle criticized the management of the dams that currently speckle the river. "To manage the dams, the corps produced, in 1960, as I noted a moment ago, a management plan that we call the master manual. That manual caters primarily to barge traffic on the Missouri River at the expense, virtually, of everything else, at the expense of fish and wildlife, at the expense of agriculture, at the expense of recreation, at the expense of ecological considerations, at the expense of the environment, at the expense of people virtually north of the state of Missouri."

Bond argued that there were no scientific studies showing the ecological affect of Daschle's plan, and he warned about the increase in floods that the scheme would cause. "This is untenable for farmers living along the river. One-third of the commodities of Missouri are grown in the floodplains of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. It is untenable for mayors who want their communities and their critical infrastructure protected. It is imperative for the families who do not want to lose their family members in floods. Some who don't live in areas of flood may not know, but floods do take lives. Floods are deadly. Floods are devastating."

Another upstream Democrat, Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, dismissed Bond's worries. "Flood control comes first. I might say, though, the corps and other agencies have taken flood control into account. In fact, the corps has modeled many different river management alternatives. Their models show that under a spring rise/split season, there is no difference in flood control. Statistically, it is about 1%, which is basically zero."

After defeating the amendment, the Senate easily passed the underlying bill. The President has vowed a veto of the measure if it contains Bond's provision, which appears in both the House and Senate versions.

A "yes" vote was a vote to allow increased springtime flow of the Missouri River. A "no" vote was a vote against the amendment permitting such increases.

FOR THE AMENDMENT: 45

REPUBLICANS FOR (2): Chafee and Both.

DEMOCRATS FOR (43): Baucus, Bayh, Biden, Bingaman, Boxer, Breaux, Bryan, Byrd, Cleland, Conrad, Daschle, Dodd, Dorgan, Durbin, Edwards, Feingold, Feinstein, Graham (Fla.), Harlan, Hollings, Inouye, Johnson, Kennedy, Kerrey (Neb.), Kerry (Mass.), Kohl, Landrieu, Lautenberg, Leahy, Levin, Mikulski, Miller, Moynihan, Murray, Reed (R.I.), Reid (Nev.), Robb, Rockefeller, Sarbanes, Schumer, Torricelli, Wellstone and Wyden.

AGAINST THE AMENDMENT: 52

REPUBLICANS AGAINST (51): Abraham, Allard, Ashcroft, Bennett, Bond, Brownback, Bunning, Burns, Campbell, Cochran, Collins, Craig, Crapo, DeWine, Domenici, Enzi, Fitzgerald, Frist, Gorton, Gramm (Tex.), Grams (Minn.), Grassley, Gregg, Hagel, Hatch, Helms, Hutchinson (Ark.), Hutchison (Tex.), Inhofe, Jeffords, Kyi, Lott, Lugar, Mack, McCain, McConnell, Nickles, Roberts, Santorum, Sessions, Shelby, Smith (N.H.), Smith (Ore.), Snowe, Specter, Stevens, Thomas, Thompson, Thurmond, Voinovich and Warner.

DEMOCRATS AGAINST (1): Lincoln.

NOT VOTING: (3): Akaka, Lieberman and Murkowski.

Copyright Human Events Publishing, Inc. Sep 22, 2000
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