Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to this amendment, respectfully, and I implore the majority to take a close look at where they have obtained the money for this important Amtrak investment. Amtrak is important to Ohio, to the Pennsylvania-Ohio corridor, and there would be nothing I would do to hurt Amtrak. I have been one of Amtrak's greatest advocates.

Of the $9 million to fix this problem for Amtrak, you don't take the majority of it, $3 million, from the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Administration, the Great Lakes-Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation. In effect, what they have done is they have taken $3 million of the $9 million they need for Amtrak out of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, which is, in effect, a 10 percent cut to the smallest entity inside of the Department of Transportation.

Why is the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation important? First of all, the current funding level is the smallest budget within the Department of Transportation. Our amendment inside the full Committee on Appropriations allowed that budget not to be cut any further.

The seaway is the only binational instrumentality between Canada and the United States. It connects an entire region of the country from Duluth to Massena, New York, to global markets. They have threatened problems within the seaway, such as locks collapsing and inadequate areas for our ships to pass through. Sailing on the Great Lakes can be very, very dangerous, as many of our sailors know.

That corridor is the shortest distance between Europe and the United States, and last year, the seaway had an 8 percent increase in its shipping growth. It serves a part of America that has been battered economically. Manufacturing has been fighting its way back. This really isn't the time to tamper with the seaway's budget.

I understand the problems of Amtrak, and I know that it needs funding, but I am just asking the majority to please look at the budget you have offered. Your offsets in the case of the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation are truly unacceptable, and in doing so, the seaway will be harmed. It will harm ports like Erie, Pennsylvania; Massena, New York; Duluth, Minnesota; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Gary, Indiana; Toledo, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan. The list is a very, very long list.

We have an aging infrastructure in the Great Lakes as well. We don't have the power of the Intracoastal. We wish we did. But I have to raise my voice in strong objection to the offset related to the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation.

I respect very much the gentleman from Pennsylvania. I know what you are trying to do for Amtrak. I want to help you in that effort, but not at the expense of the seaway.

I am hoping that the respective staffs can work together as this bill moves forward to find a more reasonable offset. I have many more ideas about that, but the Saint Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation should be allowed to remain functional and not be harmed by a 10 percent cut.

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