Heidi Alexander: “seeing no other Senator here, I would like to turn to another matter. In his biography of Thomas Jefferson, Jon Meacham…”

“seeing no other Senator here, I would like to turn to another matter. In his biography of Thomas Jefferson, Jon Meacham writes that Jefferson liked to fish. Jefferson ``had a favorite spot,'' Meacham writes, ``below the old dam on the Rivanna River.'' Thomas Jefferson, if he were alive, would be pleased to know Americans followed his example. Americans like to fish, and in Tennessee we have nearly 900,000 Tennesseans who bought fishing licenses last year, and they like to fish below the dams just like President Jefferson liked to do because they know that is where the fishing is sometimes the best. That is why there is such an uproar in Tennessee and in Kentucky and from fishermen all over the country about the unreasonable obstinance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in seeking to put up physical barriers to fishing below the 10 dams on the Cumberland River. The Corps of Engineers is an honorable institution. The flooding season is upon us, and we all remember the terrific job they did last year and the year before when we had such serious floods along the Mississippi. We are grateful to them for that. But for whatever reason, the Corps of Engineers is rejecting every reasonable proposal from the States of Tennessee and Kentucky to say let us work with you to ensure safety below the dams on the Cumberland River in a way that continues to allow fishing when it is safe and that allows us to attract the jobs into our area.…”