Missouri River fight heads toward hearing

WASHINGTON -- The decision to return the Missouri River to a more seasonal flow is out of their hands, but senators are using a congressional hearing to prod the Army Corps of Engineers to act.

Set for this morning, the hearing is the first opportunity lawmakers have had to publicly challenge the corps in the weeks since the agency postponed, indefinitely, a long-awaited plan for altering the river's flow to protect endangered fish and birds.

It also comes days after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service blocked the corps from releasing more water to drought-stricken communities, ruling that endangered shorebirds cannot be moved from sandbars and islands.