Even if the Republican U.S. Congress was interested in President Obama’s one-time, 14-percent tax proposal on nearly $2 trillion of foreign earnings to pay for $478 billion of infrastructure upgrades, the budgeted infrastructure upgrades don’t include the Chickamauga Dam. Indeed, while his proposed 2016 budget increases spending on the Army Corps of Engineers, it cuts spending by 13.2 percent for the Corps to repair and replace dams, locks and waterways.
One even might be tempted to think the president, having seen Congress pass a bill in late 2014 that raised the tax on diesel fuel for barges from 20 to 29 cents, might have decided that with the tax increase the Army Corps didn’t need any more money. As it is, his budget provides $180 million for the Olmsted Lock and Dam Project and $52 million for the Lower Monongahela River project but nothing for the Kentucky lock or the Chickamauga lock projects.
Fortunately, Congress, with the help of Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, R-Chattanooga, helped craft legislation last year that changed the Inland Waterways Trust Fund formula and may free up more money — sooner rather than later — for work on the Chickamauga Dam lock. Both Alexander and Fleischmann, in meetings with Corps officials next week, also plan to push for more money to be spent on the lock.