08/01/2011
https://www.congress.gov...
"We hope to keep big controversial riders off the committee bill."
"But we collected money from the commercial users of the locks. I mean, it is one of those unusual circumstances where the barge owners came and said would you please raise our taxes and use those taxe..."
"And then we will ask staff to work with you informally on the questions that we think are the most important to us as we draft the bill."
"So we are collecting taxes for a dedicated purpose at about $1.6 or $1.7 billion to deepen ports to improve commerce, but we are just going to keep the money and not spend it even though we take it."