Waterway User Fees (H.R. 8309). Vote is on the Delaney motion concerning the rule on the bill authorizing the Corps of Engineers new Lock and Dam 26 on the Mississippi River and imposing only a small fuel tax on the commercial barges that use this and other inland waterways. The motion cut off debate and in effect prevented anyone else from offering amendments to strengthen the token user charge in the bill. Commercial barge operators continue to push for more environmentally destructive canal projects because the entire cost is paid by the taxpayer. This gives barges a tremendous advantage over railroads that must pay their own construction costs. Conservationists favor a use charge that would recover 100% of the costs of building and maintaining the inland waterway systems, instead of 10% of the costs that would be covered by this bill. Motion agreed to 241-169. October 6, 1977. NO is the correct vote.