nationally significant commercial navigation system’’ 
and declared that the system ‘‘shall be administered 
and regulated in recognition of its several purposes’’; 
(2) inaction on construction of new locks will 
lead to economic decline, and inaction on implemen-
tation of an enhanced ecosystem restoration pro-
gram will lead to further environmental decline; 
(3) the Upper Mississippi River and Illinois 
Waterway carry approximately 60 percent of the 
corn exports of the United States and 45 percent of 
the soybean exports of the United States, providing 
a significant positive balance of trade benefit for the 
Nation; 
(4) the movement of more than 100,000,000 
tons of product supports 400,000 full- and part-time 
jobs 
in 
the 
United 
States, 
generating 
over 
$4,000,000,000 in income and $12,000,000,000 to 
$15,000,000,000 in economic activity; 
(5) Midwestern utilities use coal, the second 
largest category of cargo shipped on the Upper Mis-
sissippi River System, to produce cost-efficient en-
ergy; 
(6) keeping the cost of transportation lower 
through competition between transportation modes 
is the United States farmer’s competitive advantage
in capturing future global growth in agricultural ex-
ports; 
(7) United States farm and trade policies work 
to open world markets and promote United States 
exports, and water resource policy has provided a 
low-cost transportation alternative to other modes; 
(8) the Department of Agriculture projects that 
corn exports will grow 44 percent over the next dec-
ade, with a 1⁄3 increase in growth exported through 
the Gulf of Mexico; 
(9) United States exports of soybeans and soy-
bean products topped 1,000,000,000 bushels for the 
third straight year in 2003, with roughly 75 percent 
exported through the Port of New Orleans via the 
Mississippi waterways and its tributaries; 
(10) those transportation savings—
(A) provide higher income to farmers and 
rural communities; and 
(B) generate Federal and State taxes to 
support community activities, quality of life, 
and national benefits; 
(11) the construction of new 1,200-foot locks 
and 
lock 
extensions 
will 
provide 
more 
than 
48,000,000 man-hours of employment over 10 to 15 
years;
(12) foreign competitors have worked over the 
last 10 years to improve foreign transportation in-
frastructure to compete more effectively with United 
States production; 
(13) the inland waterway transportation system 
moves 16 percent of the freight in the United States 
for 2 percent of the cost, including more than 
100,000,000 tons on the Upper Mississippi River 
System; 
(14) the Department of Transportation projects 
that freight congestion on the roads and rails in the 
United States will double in the next 25 years and 
that water transportation will need to play an in-
creasing role in moving freight; 
(15) the movement of 100,000,000 tons on the 
river system in 4,400 15-barge tows out of harms 
way would require an equivalent of 4,000,000 trucks 
or 1,000,000 rail cars moving directly through our 
communities; 
(16) econometric models are useful analytic 
tools to provide valuable information, but are unable 
to account for every market trend, development, and 
public policy impact; 
(17) the current capacity of the Upper Mis-
sissippi River System is—
(A) declining by 10 percent annually be-
cause of unplanned closures of a 70-year old in-
frastructure; and 
(B) reducing the potential for sustained 
growth; 
(18) the current 600-foot lock system was de-
signed for steamboats, at a time when 4,000,000 
tons moved on the Mississippi River and a total of 
2,000,000,000 bushels of corn were produced na-
tionally, compared to today, when 100,000,000 to 
120,000,000 tons are shipped and the national pro-
duction of corn exceeds 10,000,000,000 bushels; 
(19) the 600-foot locks at Locks and Dam Nos. 
20, 21, 22, 24, and 25 on the Upper Mississippi 
River and LaGrange and Peoria on the Illinois Wa-
terway are operating at 80 percent utilization and 
are unable to provide for or process effectively the 
volatile growth of traditional export grain markets; 
(20) based on the current construction schedule 
of new locks and dams on the inland system, lock 
modernization will need to take place over 30 years, 
starting immediately, as an imperative to avoid lost 
export grain sales and diminished national competi-
tiveness;
(21) the Corps of Engineers has been studying 
the needs for national investments on the Upper 
Mississippi River System for the last 15 years and 
has based initial recommendations on the best avail-
able information and science; 
(22) the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers 
ecosystem consists of hundreds of thousands of acres 
of bottomland forests, islands, backwaters, side 
channels, and wetlands; 
(23) the river ecosystem is home to 270 species 
of birds, 57 species of mammals, 45 species of am-
phibians and reptiles, 113 species of fish, and nearly 
50 species of mussels; 
(24) more than 40 percent of migratory water-
fowl and shorebirds in North America depend on the 
river for food, shelter, and habitat during migration; 
(25) the annual operation of the Upper Mis-
sissippi River Basin needs to take into consideration 
opportunities for ecosystem restoration; 
(26) development since the 1930s has altered 
and reduced the biological diversity of the large flood 
plain river systems of the Upper Mississippi and Illi-
nois Rivers;