©2026 League of Conservation Voters
1980 Scorecard Vote
196
216
21
H.R. 7590. Energy and Water Development Appropriations. The vote is on the Pritchard amendment to cut funding for the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway by $200 million. This “$3 billion ditch” is the most expensive and perhaps most controversial project ever undertaken by the Corps of Engineers. It will cut through a mountain ridge to link the Tennessee River with the Tombigbee River in order to provide a shorter route to the Gulf of Mexico. It would destroy the Tombigbee and over 100,000 acres of forest, farmland, and wildlife habitat. But it provides no hydro-power, flood control, irrigation or water supply benefits to anyone. All it provides is a barge canal in an area already well served by railroads and close to the Mississippi River. The costs of the Tenn-Tom have shot up tenfold since it was first authorized, and the Corps claims some benefits which do not exist, for example coal barge traffic for companies which do not intend to use the canal at all. Only the clout of a few southern Congressmen and Senators has kept this project alive. Pritchard rejected 196-216. June 25, 1980. YES is the correct vote.
©2026 League of Conservation Voters