Georgia Governor: Maybe Rubio Should Face a Gag Order

Randall Weiseman Alabama, Florida, General, Georgia, Industry News Release, Water

FROM THE NEWS SERVICE OF FLORIDA:

Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Wednesday made a rare public comment about his state’s ongoing battle with Florida and Alabama over the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint river system, which the three states share.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, reporters asked Deal at a bill-signing event about last week’s proposal by U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., to require the governors of the three states to agree on changes to the river system’s operating plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

As far back as 1990, Florida and Alabama charged that the Corps releases too little water downstream from the river system’s headwaters in North Georgia. Deal reminded reporters that he was under a gag order due to the latest round of litigation, which has reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

Then he added: “We see all these people pontificating about what the governors ought to be doing. Especially Sen. Rubio. … He seems to forget that his governor, and his state, sued the state of Georgia in the U.S. Supreme Court. And that is an ongoing case and we’re under a gag order not to comment. Maybe senators ought to have gag orders as well.”

Last week, after introducing the measure dealing with changes to the operating plan, Rubio singled out Georgia as benefiting from the current distribution of water. “The situation has now become dire in my home state of Florida,” Rubio said Thursday on the Senate floor. “The bottom line is that the status quo is only working for one state.”