US Senate passes defense bill, authorizing more funds to build new Soo Lock

The Army Corps of Engineers, seeking a much-larger funding authorization to complete its work on a new supersize navigational lock in northern Michigan, got its wish as the U.S. Senate on Thursday gave final passage to a wide-ranging Pentagon spending bill that included the request.

The annual National Defense Authorization Act that now goes to President Joe Biden for his signature includes an authorization for the Corps to spend as much as $3.2 billion on the new Soo Lock under construction at Sault Ste. Marie.

The Corps had requested the authorization, which is more than triple the initial amount of $922 million, because of overruns attributed to design modifications, labor shortages and inflation as well as other factors. Congress still has to appropriate funding for each phase of the project going forward.

The project had earlier had its authorization increased to $1.4 billion. Another provision in the bill gives the Corps the temporary ability to spend over the authorization if needed and additional funding is appropriated.

"In Michigan, we know how vital the (Soo) Locks are to our economy and national defense," said U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Michigan, who helped lead the fight to secure the authorization. "We also know that we are on borrowed time until something happens and shuts them down. ... There is full commitment from Congress, the Army Corps of Engineers and the administration to finish the job we started.”

U.S. Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Midland, who is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and who voted for the defense authorization bill when it passed the House last week, said he would "be working to make sure that Congress uses that authorization and includes money for lock construction in future funding bills. The Soo Locks are vital to the American economy, and I will be working to make sure the Army Corps of Engineers finishes this critical infrastructure project."

Earlier this year, it appeared the Biden administration had committed the last funding needed to finish the new lock, which will be one of only two big enough to permit the largest cargo vessels sailing on the Great Lakes to pass between Lake Superior and the St. Marys River leading to Lake Huron and the lower Lakes beyond by raising or lowering them 21 feet. The only existing lock large enough to do so is 53 years old and studies have indicated that if it was damaged and closed for an extended length of time, it could severely hurt the economy with manufacturers counting on supplies, including iron ore pellets widely used in making products including automobiles and appliances.

Carrie Fox, spokeswoman for the Army Corps' Detroit District, said the project, which has already received funding of more than $1 billion, is still on schedule to be completed by 2030, depending on the availability of the necessary funding.

Along with funding to bolster to the Soo Locks, the Army Corps will also receive funding to authorize projects to stop invasive species of Asian carp from entering the Great Lakes, prevent coastal erosion and flooding, and improve water quality in Michigan.

The defense authorization, a sweeping $858 billion bill that includes a 4.6% pay increase for military personnel, removes commanders from the prosecutorial process in sexual assault and rescinds, over Biden's objections, a mandate that service members be required to have a COVID-19 vaccine.

Several other portions of the bill are likely to be of particular interest in Michigan, including:

• The phasing-out of military contracts for firefighting equipment containing PFAS chemicals linked to cancer and other ailments, a $1.2 billion authorization for cleaning up contaminated military sites and $11 million for PFAS-related research. U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Lansing, also won approval of a measure directing the Pentagon to begin providing service members alternatives if current gear contains the chemicals. Michigan has more than 200 known PFAS contamination sites.
• A report, called for by U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Ann Arbor, that evaluates the humanitarian situation in Lebanon, including the impact of wheat imports to that country being hurt by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Southeastern Michigan has one of the largest concentrations of Arab Americans, including those with family ties to Lebanon, in the country.
• Military funding, secured by U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, including $16 million for a National Guard armory at Camp Grayling, more than $20 million for the Marine Corps Reserve Unit in Battle Creek and $1.6 million to finish construction on maintenance facilities at the Army Reserve Center in Southfield. U.S. Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Bruce Township, also said she secured a report on Air Force moves to eventually divest itself of A-10 aircraft such as that flown out of Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township.
• An authorization of $350 million to be spent on the acquisition of a Great Lakes icebreaker and a measure urging completion of a Great Lakes study to help determine measures to best protect shoreline from future lake levels and increased storm severity.