Max Baucus: “in the past 2 years, the House of Representatives has made some good decisions, but I must say they have also made some…”

“in the past 2 years, the House of Representatives has made some good decisions, but I must say they have also made some rather questionable ones that is, from the two Government shutdowns not too long ago to the attempted cuts in school lunches, Medicare, and college loans. I think it has left a lot of us not only in the Senate but across the country shaking our heads. But the great water raid they pulled off under Speaker Gingrich's leadership last Tuesday may be the worst decision yet. Let me sum up the water raid very simply. The House, operating under a procedure that allowed no vote in the Chamber, passed a water resources development bill that takes 30 days' worth of water out of Montana, out of Wyoming and the Dakotas and sends it downstream. This was done to give bargeowners downstream 1 month's worth of extra navigation, bypassing the Army Corps of Engineers, putting scientific and environmental analysis in the trash basket, and ignoring basic economics. For many years--in fact, ever since Fort Peck Dam went up 60 years ago--the Army Corps of Engineers has discriminated in favor of downstream navigation and against the far more economically valuable recreation and tourism industry upstream. They have done it by draining water out of the Upper Basin States, leaving farmers and dockowners high and dry.”