Deal: Ga. will start harbor deepening on its own | www.wsbtv.com

SAVANNAH, Ga. — From Capitol Hill to the governor’s office, Georgia officials sounded both stunned and defiant Tuesday after the Obama administration’s new budget failed to recommend funding to start the $652 million deepening of Savannah’s busy shipping channel — a project Vice President Joe Biden pledged just six months ago would get done “come hell or high water.”

Gov. Nathan Deal vowed to jumpstart the expansion of the river channel cargo ships use to reach the Port of Savannah without financial help from Washington, using $231 million the state already has set aside for its share of the project. Deal seized on Biden’s much-quoted “hell or high water” comment to retort: “It’s more accurate to say the administration is going to put us through the former to get to the latter.”

Like other East Coast ports, Savannah is scrambling to deepen its harbor to make room for supersized cargo ships expected to begin arriving after the Panama Canal finishes a major expansion as early as next year. Georgia officials are pushing hard to get construction started this year and were looking to President Barack Obama to seek significant funding for the project after the president touted the need for deeper water at U.S. ports during public appearances last year.

But the president’s fiscal 2015 budget proposal released Tuesday contained just $1.52 million for the Savannah harbor, and that small amount was designated for preconstruction engineering and design. Even Georgia Republicans who are typically critical of Obama said they were shocked given the administration’s public endorsements of the project as won that would boost U.S. jobs.

“I can’t imagine what’s going on with the administration except for some kind of politics,” said U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, a Savannah Republican. “The president can talk something to death while jobs are sitting in the wings waiting to take place.”

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