Truman on September 28, 1951, that Canada was unwilling to wait for the United States and would build a seaway alone; the Canadian Parliament authorized the founding of the St. Lawrence Seaway Authority on December 21 of that year. Fueled by this support, Saint Laurent's administration decided during 1951 and 1952 to construct the waterway alone, combined with the Moses-Saunders Power Dam. (This became the joint responsibility of Ontario and New York: as a hydropower dam would change the water levels, it required bilateral cooperation.) The International Joint Commission issued an order of approval for joint construction of the dam in October 1952. U.S. Senate debate on the bill began on January 12, 1953, and the bill emerged from the House of Representatives Committee of Public Works on February 22, 1954. It received approval from the Senate and the House by May 1954. The first positive action to enlarge the seaway was taken on May 13, 1954, when U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Wiley-Dondero Seaway Act to authorize joint construction and establish the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation as the U.S. authority. The need for cheap haulage of Quebec-Labrador iron ore was one of the arguments that finally swung the balance in favor of the seaway. Groundbreaking ceremonies took place in Massena, New York, on August 10, 1954. That year John C. Beukema was appointed by Eisenhower to the five-member St. Lawrence Seaway Advisory Board. In May 1957, the Connecting Channels Project was begun by the United States Army Corps of Engineers. By 1959, Beukema was on board the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Maple for the first trip through the U.S. locks, which opened up the Great Lakes to oceangoing ships. On April 25, 1959, large, deep-draft ocean vessels began streaming to the heart of the North American continent through the seaway, a project supported by every administration from Woodrow Wilson through Eisenhower. In the United States, N. R. Danelian (who was the director of the 13-volume St. Lawrence Seaway Survey in the U.S. Department of Navigation (1932–63)), worked with the U.S. Secretary of State on Canadian-U.S. issues regarding the seaway, persevering through 15 years to gain passage by Congress of the Seaway Act. He later became president of the Great Lakes St. Lawrence Association to promote seaway development to benefit the American heartland. The seaway was heavily promoted by the Eisenhower administration, which had been concerned with