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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATIONAL CORN GROWERS ASSOCIATION
Rhondalee A. Dean-Royce, 202.628.7001
NCGA Welcomes Introduction of Senate Locks Bill
(WASHINGTON) May 20, 2004 -- The National Corn Growers Association
(NCGA) today applauded the introduction of a bill calling for the construction
of seven new 1,200-foot navigation locks, small-scale infrastructure
improvements and ecosystem restoration on the upper Mississippi and
Illinois rivers.
The bill was introduced by a bipartisan group of senators representing
four Mississippi River basin states. Sens. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), Tom Harkin
(D-Iowa) and Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) crafted the bill, and Sens. Jim
Talent (R-Mo.), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Peter Fitzgerald (R-Ill.)
and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) joined the trio in introducing the measure.
NCGA President Dee Vaughan commended the senators for their work on
the bill and said corn growers look forward to Senate action on the
legislation this summer.
“We’re extremely pleased to see this type of bipartisan
cooperation, and we thank the senators for working together to craft
this important legislation,” Vaughan said. “This is a very
important step in the process and demonstrates these senators’ commitment
to modernizing our infrastructure. Corn growers have been expressing
the need for new locks for more than a decade now, and we’re
excited to see that someone has been listening.”
The bill allocates $1.46 billion in funding, half of which will come
from the Inland Waterways Trust Fund, for construction of new 1,200-foot
locks at Locks 20, 21, 22, 24 and 25 on the upper Mississippi and at
LaGrange and Peoria Locks on the Illinois. The legislation also provides
for mooring facilities at seven locks and switchboats at five locks.
An equal allocation is provided for environmental restoration projects.
The current navigation system, made up mostly of undersized 600-foot
locks, forces tows to use the time-consuming and dangerous double-locking
procedure, Vaughan said. This inefficiency raises the price of transportation,
lowers the price farmers receive and decreases their competitiveness
in world markets, he added.
“We are concerned by the traffic congestion and declines in
capacity we’re seeing on the rivers, and continued inaction on
this issue will seriously impact the Midwestern economy,” Vaughan
said. “We urge Congress to follow the lead of Senators Bond,
Harkin, Durbin and the others who made this bill possible. The time
for action is now.”
The importance of the Mississippi
and Illinois rivers to corn growers can not be understated, Vaughan
said. The U.S. farmer’s international
competitiveness has always hinged on the ability to move crops affordably
to market.
“Approximately 60 percent of all U.S. corn exports are shipped
to export markets on the upper Mississippi and Illinois rivers – that
amounted to nearly 1.2 billion bushels last year,” he said. “And
as global demand for corn continues to increase, it behooves us to
make the necessary upgrades to our transportation infrastructure.”
Vaughan also touted the locks bill as a means to create thousands
of jobs in the Midwest. Construction of the new 1,200-foot locks and
the extension of five additional locks would provide more than 48 million
man-hours of employment for a 10- to 15-year period, he said.
The National
Corn Growers Association mission is to create and increase opportunities
for corn growers in a changing world and to enhance corn’s
profitability and usage. NCGA represents more than 33,000 members,
25 affiliated state corn grower organizations and hundreds of thousands
of growers who contribute to state checkoff programs.
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