House chairman: Ga. port hurdle should get lifted | www.myajc.com

SAVANNAH, Ga. — One of Capitol Hill’s most powerful voices on transportation policy said Wednesday he expects Congress by the end of this year will likely pass a bill that clears a final obstacle to deepening the Savannah harbor.

Rep. Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, joined fellow Republican Rep. Jack Kingston of Savannah Georgia for a tour of the city’s booming seaport. Georgia port officials and the Army Corps of Engineers are close to starting a $652 million project to deepen more than 30 miles of the Savannah River used by cargo ships to reach the Savannah port.

But one bureaucratic obstacle remains: Congress put a $459 million spending cap on the harbor project in 1999. The limit needs to be updated for the Corps to begin dredging the river.

Shuster’s committee last week approved the Water Resources Reform and Development Act, a large water-projects bill containing language that would solve the Savannah port’s problem. Shuster said it should come up for a vote in the full House the week of Oct. 7. That would leave time for the House and Senate, which passed a different version of the bill in May, to agree on a final version before 2013 ends.

“I believe there is a high, high probability we’re going to have a WRRDA bill this year,” Shuster told reporters after his port tour. “…I look forward to passing it and making sure the Port of Savannah is clearly in the bill.”

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