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By Amy Dominello, Media General News Service
WASHINGTON – Three Georgia Republicans who sought federal support to deepen Savannah’s harbor were disappointed by the lack of funding for the project in President Bush’s budget released Monday.
Sen.. Johnny Isakson, Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Rep. Jack Kingston had sought $76 million to deepen Savannah’s harbor from 42 feet to 48 feet.
The project is needed to help prepare Savannah port to accommodate bigger ships that will arrive with the widening of the Panama Canal in 2014, Isakson said.
“It’s critical that we get it done, and you can’t just do it at the last minute,” Isakson said. “It’s a process that’s going to take four to five years, so we were working hard to get it in this year’s submission by the president.”
Bush’s budget calls for $700,000 for preliminary engineering and design work for the deepening project, but for no construction money.
Several projects are underway that will allow the port to accommodate growing volumes of cargo carried by today’s larger ships, according to the Georgia Ports Authority’s Web site. Calls to the authority’s spokesman were not returned Monday.
Last month, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue announced his state budget will include $52 million to deepen the harbor.
The Port of Savannah has become the fastest growing container port in the United States and is the second largest on the East Coast, the three lawmakers said in a statement.
Savannah moves more than 16 percent of the East Coast’s overseas container cargo, and economic growth will be weakened, the Georgia lawmakers said, if the port is not expanded to accommodate larger vessels.
Isakson, Chambliss and Kingston had met with White House budget officials about the project, but they received no promises that the project would be funded, Isakson said.
Kingston, however, said the Georgians thought the conversations more fruitful. Administration officials had not signaled the money would not be coming, he said.
“We thought we were a little bit closer coming together than this,” he said.
All three congressmen hope to see money added to the budget in Congress.
“It’s a long road and there are many opportunities down the line,” Isakson said.
Kingston said adding any amount of money may be especially difficult at a time when earmarks are under fire. Earmarks typically are added on to legislation and designate money for a specific project. President Bush has signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to ignore them.
“This is why Congress wants to keep earmarks because the bureaucracy sometimes let us down,” Kingston said
Overall, the Bush administration on Monday acknowledged that a weaker economy would lead to higher budget deficits, and Bush’s proposed budget for fiscal 2009 would nearly freeze domestic programs.
"The budget takes into account that we're going to see a slowdown in the economy, a temporary one. It takes into account the economic stimulus package we're going to put in place in order to shield against that," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.
The proposal forecasts a deficit of $410 billion for the budget year 2008 that ends on September 30 and $407 billion for fiscal 2009 that begins on October 1.
Click the play button below to hear Rep. Jack Kingston talk about his disappointment that money for the Savannah harbor project wasn't included in the federal budget.
(Contact Amy Dominello at 202-662-7671 or adominello@mediageneral.com)
WASHINGTON – Three Georgia Republicans who sought federal support to deepen Savannah’s harbor were disappointed by the lack of funding for the project in President Bush’s budget released Monday.
Sen.. Johnny Isakson, Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Rep. Jack Kingston had sought $76 million to deepen Savannah’s harbor from 42 feet to 48 feet.
The project is needed to help prepare Savannah port to accommodate bigger ships that will arrive with the widening of the Panama Canal in 2014, Isakson said.
“It’s critical that we get it done, and you can’t just do it at the last minute,” Isakson said. “It’s a process that’s going to take four to five years, so we were working hard to get it in this year’s submission by the president.”
Bush’s budget calls for $700,000 for preliminary engineering and design work for the deepening project, but for no construction money.
Several projects are underway that will allow the port to accommodate growing volumes of cargo carried by today’s larger ships, according to the Georgia Ports Authority’s Web site. Calls to the authority’s spokesman were not returned Monday.
Last month, Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue announced his state budget will include $52 million to deepen the harbor.
The Port of Savannah has become the fastest growing container port in the United States and is the second largest on the East Coast, the three lawmakers said in a statement.
Savannah moves more than 16 percent of the East Coast’s overseas container cargo, and economic growth will be weakened, the Georgia lawmakers said, if the port is not expanded to accommodate larger vessels.
Isakson, Chambliss and Kingston had met with White House budget officials about the project, but they received no promises that the project would be funded, Isakson said.
Kingston, however, said the Georgians thought the conversations more fruitful. Administration officials had not signaled the money would not be coming, he said.
“We thought we were a little bit closer coming together than this,” he said.
All three congressmen hope to see money added to the budget in Congress.
“It’s a long road and there are many opportunities down the line,” Isakson said.
Kingston said adding any amount of money may be especially difficult at a time when earmarks are under fire. Earmarks typically are added on to legislation and designate money for a specific project. President Bush has signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to ignore them.
“This is why Congress wants to keep earmarks because the bureaucracy sometimes let us down,” Kingston said
Overall, the Bush administration on Monday acknowledged that a weaker economy would lead to higher budget deficits, and Bush’s proposed budget for fiscal 2009 would nearly freeze domestic programs.
"The budget takes into account that we're going to see a slowdown in the economy, a temporary one. It takes into account the economic stimulus package we're going to put in place in order to shield against that," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters.
The proposal forecasts a deficit of $410 billion for the budget year 2008 that ends on September 30 and $407 billion for fiscal 2009 that begins on October 1.
Click the play button below to hear Rep. Jack Kingston talk about his disappointment that money for the Savannah harbor project wasn't included in the federal budget.
(Contact Amy Dominello at 202-662-7671 or adominello@mediageneral.com)