Kagen Loses Again

I'm sensing a pattern here.

Man goes off on his own, when compromises have already been established, and then gets his head handed to him.

Nah, those decisions won't come back and haunt him next year at all!

A congressional conference committee has agreed to reauthorize the depth of the Fox River navigational channel to six feet, a victory for the paper companies that favor capping more of the river pollution.

The Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) is expected to be passed by the House of Representatives and U.S. Senate before Congress adjourns at the end of the week.

The conference committee accepted the Senate version that changes the authorized depth of the channel from the Georgia-Pacific turning basin to the De Pere dam from 18 feet to six feet. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials have said that the 18-foot depth would have made it virtually impossible to cap polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) as part of the $390 million river remediation project.

U.S. Rep. Steve Kagen, D-Appleton, pulled the 6-foot option from the House bill earlier this year but Sen. Herb Kohl left it in the Senate version.

“It was an honor to serve on the conference committee,” Kagen said late Tuesday in a statement. “I look forward to working with everyone in the House and Senate to improve the health and economic well-being of rivers across the country, and especially our Fox River.”

Georgia-Pacific officials could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

Good. G-P doesn't need to reached for comment. They thought they had a deal in place that was years in the making before the fruitcake "doctor and scientist" came along and damned near blew it up.

Notice the wording of the Kagen press flack statement. He got taken to town, and Herb Kohl was chauffeur.